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THE LIFE 



JUDGE JEFFREYS, 



CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE KING'S BENCH 
UNDER CHARLES II., 



l v d r ft I i g ji £ Ij n n r r 1 1 n r a f <£ - n g 1 n it h 

DURING 

THE REIGN OF JAMES II. 
HUMPHREY W. WOOLRYCH. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
LINDSAY AND BLAKISTON. 

1852. 



19 




WM. S. YOUNG, PRINTER. 



^fera • S^i^-j . V V fC>. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The author happened, in the presence of a friend, to 
hint his intention of writing this life, when the latter in- 
stantly took the alarm, and exclaimed, "Why, you 
surely are not going to whitewash Judge Jeffreys?" 
The author said, he certainly could not think of justify- 
ing that lawyer upon every occasion, whose character 
was, upon the whole, none of the be.st ; but that he saw 
no reason why even such a man as Jeffreys might not 
have had some good qualities, as well as others. 

Now, most will agree that this is a fair principle, not 
at all inapplicable to human nature; and, upon investi- 
gating the subject, some very redeeming traits soon 
showed themselves, brightening up with admirable lustre 
the conduct of a man who has been denounced by Pro- 
testant writers, people of his own creed, as the most 
wicked of mortals. Were all the histories unimpeachable 
which profess to speak of him, and the anathemas against 
him as prompt in their fulfilment as in their descent from 
the pens of^rme^a^d>*e,ai^ ^Yr^ej^^^e^^h^inigjiljlj^ 



front the Catholics a place in their purgatory, and count 
it indeed a felicitous atonement for his misdeeds. 

But really it would be as absurd to predicate of any 
person that he is entirely vicious, as that we should de- 
sire to see Jeffreys at the head of the King's Bench now, 
insteadof the excellent and patient judge who presides 
thereS^At the same time, we are far from advising pa- 
rents to recommend the example of Sir George Jeffreys 
to their children. Heaven grant that our country may be 
for ever free from such tyranny as his ; and that whoever 
ventures to make him a pattern may be impeached, and 
soon hanged, or beheaded, as may suit ! All we say is, 
that whenever a cloud is spread over the political horizon, 
some needy adventurer will appear, ready to serve every 
turn; and that it is, nevertheless, the province of such 
as are pleased to record his actions, to give him fair 
measure, good as well as evil report. For were it other- 
wise, it need only be said of any one, as Burnet did of 
Jeffreys, that he is " scandalously vicious ;" and the terms 
monster, tyrant, ruffian, a cohort of abuse, a condemna- 
tion full and universal, would be poured forth against 
him, without the scantiest endeavour to point out the true 
sources of his errors ; so that others would never be the 
wiser, or better enabled to shun them. If an inquiry be 
once set on foot, there are kindly qualities even in the 
worst of men : the depraved and degenerate (as some are 
called) will often, in their mood, achieve generous and 

it? **~<aj ?* 



INTRODUCTION. 



noble deeds which the excellent of the earth have seldom 
contemplated, so sternly is the Divine Image, all over 
beautiful and lovely, stamped upon us. But, had the 
author even indulged in panegyric, the character of Jef- 
freys would not have been the first, no, nor yet the worst, 
which a solitary writer might have dared to ennoble in 
the face of all others who have agreed in a united theme 
of execration. 

What said the philosopher Seneca of Claudius Caesar ? 
Consoling Polybius, the emperor's freedman, for the loss 
of a brother, he writes: — "Since you are so anxious to 
banish all things from your memory, think on Caesar : 
see what faithfulness, what diligence you owe him, for his 
partiality. It is his watchfulness which guards the dwell- 
ings of all; his labour the ease of all, his industry the 
luxuries of all, his occupation the repose of all. Add 
now, that as you ever hold Caesar to be more dear to you 
than your own soul; it is not right, whilst Caesar is safe, 
to repine at fortune." 1 

This was the great philosopher who so far scorned the, 
world, as to declare, that there was great pleasure in the 

' Cum voles omnium rerum oblivisci, cogita Caesarem : vide quantam 
hujus in te indulgentiae fidem, quantam industriam debeas. Omnium 
domos illius vigilia defendit, omnium otium illius labor, omnium deli- 
cias illius industria, omnium vacationem illius occupatio. — Adjice nunc, 
quod cum semper praedices cariorem tibi spiritu tuo Caesarem esse, fas 
tibi non est, salvo Caesare, de fortuna queri. 

1 * 



INTRODUCTION. 



very article of death; and yet he wasted much such 
lavish praise upon a drivelling idiot. 

But not to harass the reader ; does not our own histo- 
rian, George Buck, speak feelingly for crook-back'd 
Richard? " There is no story that shows the planetary 
affections and malice of the vulgar," says the panegyrist, 
"more truly than King Richard's, and what a tickle 
game kings have to play with them ; though his successor, 
Henry VII., played his providently enough (with help of 
the standers-by ;) yet even those times both groaned and 
complained, but had not the sting and infection of King 
Richard's adversaries, who did not only contend with his 
immortal parts, but raked his dust, to find and aggravate 
exceptions in his grave." — "Julius Caesar," continues 
he, "was, and ever will be, reputed a wise and a great 
captain, although his emulation cost an infinite quantity 
of human blood. He thought crimen sacrum Ambitio." 

If right for ought may e'er be violate, 
It must be only for a sovereign state. 

And again: "He wore the crown at Bosworth," says 
Polidore, "thinking that day should either be the last of 
his life, or the first of a better; but whatever was his 
mystery, it rendered him a confident and valiant master 
of his right." 

Indeed, one might at this day be emboldened to ask — 
What had become of Richmond's memory, if he had fallen 
down slain in Bosworth-field, and, like Richard, had been 



INTRODUCTION. 



Dragg'd by the hair to hostile swords a prey, 
And slain with barbarous wounds ? 

What had been told us of Augustus, if he had died less 
than Emperor of Rome? What of our Jeffreys, on the 
other hand, if the army at Salisbury had stood faithful 
to King James; or the Lord Dartmouth, blest with auspi- 
cious winds, had attacked the Dutch fleet, ere the Prince 
of Orange had landed at Torbay ? 

But it is for the public to judge : to their mercy we 
leave the great Chief Justice, and go on at once, lest 
some Christopher Sly should peep out, and say, "A good 
matter, surely : come there any more of it ? Would it 
were done? " When the answer must be, " My lord, 'tis 
but begun." 



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9 V 






CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth and parentage of Jeffreys — His love of splendour— Anecdote- 
Goes to school at Shrewsbury, St. Paul's free-school, and to West- 
minster—Recollection of Busby — Jeffreys a lawyer against his father's 
consent— His remarkable dream — He is entered of the Inner Temple 
— Sir GeofFry Palmer, attorney-general to Charles II. — Studies of Jef- 
freys — His love of the bottle — He is the zealous supporter of the demo- 
cratic faction, who encourage him and assist him with money. Page 13 

CHAPTER II. 

Jeffreys pleads at Kingston at the age of eighteen, two years before he is 
called to the bar — Paucity of lawyers — Boldness of his carriage — His 
clear enunciation — Ingenious artifice to obtain briefs — Cross-examining 
— Disinterested motive of Jeffreys' marriage with the kinswoman of 
the heiress whom he first courted — Amiable temper of his wife, Lady 
Sarah — He receives countenance from a namesake, Alderman Jeffreys 
— He is appointed common-serjeant — His blustering concealment of a 
bribe — Jeffreys betrays the democrats, and accedes to the court party 
— Friendship with Chifnnch, the King's page — Jeffreys, recorder of 
London, owes his advancement to political tergiversation. Page 24 

CHAPTER III. 

Jeffreys, now a widower, espouses the daughter of a former lord mayor — 
"The Westminster Wedding;" lampoon upon the Town Mouth, or 
Recorder Jeffreys — The King's Psalter, question of literary piracy — 
Sir Edmondbury Godfrey — Trial of the Jesuit Coleman — The recor» 



CONTENTS. 



der's commiseration of the papists he condemns — Really inimical to 
the Catholics — The sermon-house at Canterbury — Jeffreys defends 
Dangerfield— Cases of libel — Maxims of Jeffreys on this head — Jury- 
men ignore a bill against Smith; violence and subtlety of the recorder 
foiled — Jeffreys is made Serjeant, Chief Justice of Chester, and a.Ba- 
ronet — Duke of York's claims of profits of the new penny-post — Mr. 
Dockra — Baron Weston's reproof of Jeffreys in Court — Lord Dela- 
mere's severe charge against Jeffreys, as a Welsh judge — His brothers, 
Sir Thomas Jeffreys, Dr. Jeffreys, Dean Jeffreys — The question as to 
petitions — Jeffreys is accused of obstructing the voice of the people — 
Subsequent censure of Sir George Jeffreys on his knees at the bar of 
the House of Commons — He is constrained to resign the office of re- 
corder of London — George Treby elected recorder — Case of Verdon ; 
his wit in his own defence. Page 38 



CHAPTER IV. 

Situation and new prospects of Jeffreys — He refuses to admit dissenters 
on the grand jury — Trial of Fitzharris— Colledge, the joiner, tried — 
Witticisms of Jeffreys — Election of the city sheriffs — Dudley North 
elected — Account of Sir Edmund Sanders — Judge Jones — The quo 
■warranto judgment — Trial of Pilkington for a riot — Anecdote of Dare 
the petitioner— '-Some account of Sir Thomas Bludworth, and the fire 
of London — The Rye-house Plot — Sir Francis Pemberton — Conduct 
of Jeffreys on the Trial of Lord William Russel. . . Page 74 



CHAPTER V. 

Sir George Jeffreys appointed lord chief justice of the King's Bench — 
The trial of Algernon Sidney — Points of law overruled by the judge — 
Intrepid and talented defence made by Sidney — Exasperation of the 
chief justice — Bishop Burnet's invective against Jeffreys — Character 
of him by North — Wit of a gray-beard directed against the judge — 
Williams, the speaker of the Commons, fined — Bickering between the 
chief justice and Mr. Ward — His severity in restraints upon counsel — 
His treatment of unwilling witnesses — He is summoned to be a mem- 
ber of the cabinet — The Lord Keeper Guilford's uneasiness in having 
him for a colleague — He addresses the King — Lord Guilford resists 
the chief justice's intercession — Jeffreys decidedly a Protestant — Trial 
of Mr. Rosewell— Generous application of Sir John Talbot to the King 



CONTENTS. XI 



for Rosewell's pardon — Contests of the Chief justice and Lord Guil- 
ford — Anecdotes— Death of Charles II. — Monmouth and the liberal 
party — Jeffreys' elevation to the peerage — Titus Oates tried for per- 
jury — His sentence — Sir Bartholomew Shower — Legal acquirements 
of Jeffreys discussed— East India monopoly — Lady Ivy's case — Ri- 
chard Baxter, the non-conformist — Occasional forbearance of Judge 
Jeffreys Page 97 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Western Assizes — Duke of Monmouth's invasion— Special com- 
mission, and Jeffreys at the head of it — Countess of Pomfret — The 
Bloody Assizes, so called — The number executed — Trial and execu- 
tion of Lady Alicia Lisle — Henry Pollexfen, afterward lord chief jus- 
tice — Conduct of Jeffreys — Cruel promise of James II. — Salisbury — 
Church service at Dorchester — Intemperate speeches of the judge — 
Many transported or sold as slaves — Weakness of the Monarch — Case 
of Battiscomb — Sentence for the whipping of Tutchin — Trials at Exe- 
ter — State of the West during this assize — Cruelties at Taunton — Lord 
Stawell's indignation — Warrant to the mayor of Bath — Boasts of Judge 
Jeffreys — Further executions — Bishop Ken— The judge's charge to the 
grand jury at Bristol — Anecdote — Case of the brothers "Spekes" — 
Tory Tom's shrewdness — Dr. Oliver — Edmund Prideaux — Enormous 
bribe paid to save his life — Reception of Jeffreys at court — Anecdotes 
of Colonel Kirk — The Dissenters — Observations on the character of 
James II. and Judge Jeffreys — Execution of the Duke of Monmouth — 
Mrs. Gaunt burnt — The Lords Grey, Stamford, and Brandon Gerrard 
are pardoned — Bigotry of the King — Lord Jeffreys is appointed lord 
chancellor — Trial of Hampden before Sir Edward Herbert — Danger- 
field killed in a private quarrel — Satire on Jeffreys. . . Page 149 



CHAPTER VII. 

The great seal — Conduct of the lord chancellor in parliament — Lord 
Delamere arraigned before the Lords Triers at Westminster — Eccle- 
siastical high commission court — Dr. Sharp — Compton, bishop of Lon- 
don — The chancellor's cause-room— Anecdotes of the lord chancellor 
— Account of Sir John Trevor — Doctrine of passive obedience — Trial 
of the seven bishops — James throws off the mask with regard to his 
religion — Dr. Peachell — University refractoriness — Determined con- 



Xll CONTENTS. 



duct of the mayor of Arundel — Duke of Ormond — The royal dispen- 
sing power— Domestic life of the lord chancellor — Scandalous stories 
of his second lady — Evelyn — Lord Clarendon — Mr. Jeffreys's father — 
Sir John Trevor, speaker of the House of Commons — Anecdote of 
Tillotson — Lord Castlemaine's mission to Rome — Father Petre — Earl 
of Tyrconnel — Acquittal of the bishops — Birth of the Pretender — 
Privy-counsellors present — Legal character of the lord chancellor dis- 
cussed — Sir Basil Firebrass — Gathering of the political storm — Reli- 
gious contest— The city charter — How far lord chancellor Jeffreys is 
personally involved in the national and civic dissensions — Landing of 
William III. — The court of James in confusion. . . Page 207 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Flight of James II. — The lord chancellor is ill spoken of by the fugitive 
monarch — The great seal is consigned to the Thames, and is found by 
a. fisherman — Jeffreys conceals himself on board a collier — A scrivener, 
%vhom the chancellor had browbeat at a former time, discovers the 
fallen judge — He is seized and carried before Sir John Chapman, lord 
mayor — He is sent to the Tower, on a charge of treason — Petition of 
the widows and orphans in the west of England against him — Four 
questions propounded by the peers to the ex-chancellor — Death of 
Jeffreys — Causes of his demise— His place of sepulture — Anecdotes — 
Curious writings in vituperation of the fallen chancellor at the time 
of his imprisonment — His good and ill qualities— His splendid talents 
— Attainder of Jeffreys and his heirs attempted — His landed posses- 
sions — His portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller — Some account of his son, 
John, Lord Jeffreys — Fable supposed to have been written by him — 
He espouses a daughter of the earl of Pembroke— Conclusion. 

Page 273 



LIFE 

OF 

JUDGE JEFFREYS 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth and parentage of Jeffreys — His love of splendour — Anecdote — 
Goes to school at Shrewsbury, Sr. Paul's free-school, and to West- 
minster—Recollection of Bushy — Jeffreys a lawyer against his father's 
consent — His remarkable dream — He is entered of the Inner Temple 
— Sir Geoffry Palmer, attorney-general to Charles II. — Studies of Jef- 
freys — His loveof the bottle — He is the zealous supporter of the demo- 
cratic faction, who encourage him and assist him with money. 

George Jeffreys was the sixth son of John Jefferys, 
Esq. of Acton, 1 near Wrexham, in the county of Denbigh, 
by Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Ireland, 2 Knight, 
of Bewsey, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, and was 
born at his father's house about the year 1648. 

His paternal grandfather was a judge of North Wales, 
though some call him a justice of the peace, for that princi- 

1 Now the property of Sir Foster Cunliffe, Bart. Acton had been for 
a long time in the family : and Pennant is pleased to tell us of the obloquy 
which must have fallen on the race of Jefferys, by the production of the 
chancellor, after it had so long run uncontaminated from an ancient 
stock. 

a Probably of Grey's Inn, and the same who abridged eleven books of 
Lord Coke's Reports, and the reports of Chief Justice Dyer. 

2 



14 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



pality,) and claimed on his father's side a descent from 
Tudor Trevor, Earl of Hereford. 

John Jeffreys, 1 the father, was held to be a gentleman 
in his neighbourhood; and although his estate was not 
large, he lived contentedly upon his fortune, improving 
it by industry and frugality, till, having gained the good- 
will of his acquaintance, he obtained so good a recom- 
mendation to his intended wife, through a person of some 
interest who knew him, as to win her hand very success- 
fully. Whether, as some have said, he indulged a nig- 
gardly and covetous disposition, or was, according to 
others, prudent and economical (for men differ somewhat 
as to the bounds between thriftiness and parsimony,) it is 
admitted that he was a cautious and careful housekeeper, 
that he prospered on the fruits of his exertions, and lived 
in peace and happiness with his partner at home. But 
he was decidedly a foe to extravagance; and we will here 
give an instance of the dislike which he bore to that fashion- 
able vice. When his son George had supplanted that good 
old cavalier, Sir Job Charlton, in the chief-justiceship of 
Chester, he thought to dazzle his old companions and the 
unassuming natives of his birth-place with the splendour 
of his new state. Accordingly, he purposed a visit to his 
father, and went forth with a train so numerous, that 
the cider-barrels ran very fast, and the larder was in a 
state of perpetual exhaustion : on which the old gentleman 
put himself into such a fret, that he charged his son with 
a design to ruin him, by bringing a whole country at his 
heels, and bade him never attempt the like prodigality 



* The original name of the family was Jefferys, although the Chan- 
cellor wrote his name Jeffreys, 



LIFE OF JEFFREV; 



with hopes of success. The reverend old man lived to a 
very considerable age, having witnessed his son's eminence 
and downfall ; but he ever withheld his sanction from 
those arbitrary measures which the chancellor pursued. 
Pennant saw a likeness of him at Acton House, taken in 
the year 1690, in the eighty-second year of his age. 

George, who, were we writing romance, would be called 
the hero of these pages, showed very early that prompt 
address and activity which were the causes of his rising ; 
he was always striving for the mastery over his young 
companions ; and, although he inherited no ambition from 
his parents, he was indebted to their diligence for the 
improvement of his enterprising parts. 

When yet very young, he was sent to the free-school 
at Shrewsbury, where he remained some time, we are 
told, not without credit ; and on his leaving that place, 
it appears to have been the wish of his father that he 
should have settled to some trade, for he had already 
evinced proofs of a disposition far from tractable. This 
sober career, however, would have been a sad check to 
the untameable spirit of Jeffreys : no fatherly admonitions 
would probably have hindered him from becoming the 
idle apprentice ; and he certainly possessed talents and 
propensities, which, had he been kept in an inferior 
station, might have procured him his quietus in those 
turbulent times much sooner than the ambitious bearing 
of his elevated fortunes. It seems as though his mind 
was instinctively bent upon aggrandizement; and he was 
so fortunate as to discover, youthful as he was, the im- 
portance of learning and information; he is therefore 
described as being addicted to study ; so it was determined 
to give him the benefit of a superior education at St. 



16 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



Paul's free-school. Here he acquired a fair proficiency 
in the learned languages; 1 and he imbibed also in this 
place that fondness for the profession of the law, which 
led him to fix on it as his future destiny. He afterwards 
went to Westminster school, then under the care of Dr. 
Busby, whose rod bears as high a character as his learn- 
ing. 2 Of his improvement here we have no account ; but 
many years afterwards he showed that he had not for- 
gotten his old schoolmaster, nor the knowledge of gram- 
mar he had acquired. On the trial of Rosewell, the dis- 
senting minister, there was a little conversation about 
the relative and the antecedent on an objection taken to 
the indictment ; and Jeffreys, the chief justice, referring 
to a treasonable sentence charged to have been delivered 
by the prisoner from his pulpit, said—" I think it must 
be taken to be an entire speech, and you lay it in the 
indictment to be so, and then the relative must go to the 
last antecedent, or else Dr. Busby (that so long ruled in 
Westminster school) taught me quite wrong; and who 
had tried most of the grammars extant, and used to lay 



1 Not as has been said under the care of Dr. Gill. There were two 
Gills, father, and son, successively masters of St. Paul's school; but the 
last was removed from his situation in 1635, and died in 1642, before the 
birth of Jeffreys. John Langley was the next, and he died much beloved 
by his scholars in 1657. He was succeeded by Samuel Cromleholme, 
or Crumlum, who, from his acquaintance with languages, obtained the 
name of nolvy Xwrrog,* and under him, young Jeffreys probably received 
his education. St. Paul's school was burnt in his time. 

2 There was another George Jeffreys, a lawyer, who was bom at 
Weldori, in Northamptonshire, and who went to that school. He died 
in 1755, at the age of 77. 



Many-tongued. 



LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 17 



down that as a positive rule, that the relative must refer to 
the next antecedent." 1 

His desire for forensic debate was, however, very far 
from being agreeable at home : often and earnestly was 
he entreated by his father to desist from a pursuit which 
savoured too much of ambition to please a retired country 
gentleman; and when all dissuasions were found to be un- 
available, the signal of yielding to his wishes was a gen- 
tle pat upon the back, accompanied by these words : "Ah, 
George, George, I fear thou wilt die with thy shoes and 
stockings on." Surely the prophecy would have been ac- 
complished but for the chancellor's sudden death in the 
Tower. Some have said, that this legal impulse arose from 
a dream which the ambitious boy had whilst at this school. 
The substance of it was, that " he should be the chief 
scholar there, and should afterwards enrich himself by 
study and industry, and that he should come to be the 
second man in the kingdom ; but in conclusion, should 
fall into great disgrace and misery." This he told, when 
he came to the chancellorship: never imagining that the 

1 T^he words were — " We have had two wicked kings together, who 
have permitted popery to enter in under their noses, whom we can re- 
semble to no other person than to the most wicked Jeroboam; and that 
if they would stand to their principles, he did not fear but they would 
overcome their enemies, as in former times, with rams' horns, broken 
platters, and a stone in a sling." 

And this is the observation of the lord chief justice: 
" Suppose you were to speak it in English, Mr. Solicitor" (indictments 
were then drawn in Latin) — Now we have had two wicked kings to- 
gether, who have suffered popery to come in under their noses (mean- 
ing the late king and this) — there perhaps the inuendo is sensible, and 
no doubt of it: then he must mean them: but to say, if they will stand 
to their principles, they shall overcome their enemies, pray to whom 
does that '■they'' relate?" 

O* 



18 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



last part of it could possibly befall him. But whatever 
might have been his vapourings after his elevation, a 
much more probable reason may be asssigned for his 
decision. 

The profits of the law were greatly diminished during 
the broils of the civil wars, and the steady, careful times 
of the Commonwealth ; but no sooner had the new system 
of things been established, than the business of the coun- 
sellors revived: they began to set up their equipages, 
and to make a splendid show of the improved fortune which 
had befallen them; and this, doubtless, excited a youth 
who was never backward to discover the bright side of 
human life, and who, being without an estate himself, 
was thus stimulated by the hopes of acquiring one. 

With all his constancy, Jeffreys needed one essential 
towards the prosecution of that pursuit which he had 
marked out for himself, and that was the main-spring 
and engine of all human action — money. His father, 
encumbered with a large family, could scarcely have af- 
forded assistance to his younger son, had he conformed 
himself to the manners of his home ; much less would he 
create the means to promote an end so hostile to his feel- 
ings. And, perhaps, it had been happy for the state- 
prisoners of after-times, if this aspiring youngster had 
been without another relation ; — but it happened, that he 
was not only blessed with a fond grandmother, but had 
cither so far insinuated himself into her good graces, or 
recommended himself to her pride, that she came forward 
with an annuity of forty pounds for him ; and when his 
father found this to be the case, he did not scruple ten 
pounds a year more for decent clothing. Notwithstand- 
ing all these pushing efforts, he never had the benefit of 
a University education. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 19 



He was entered of the Inner Temple, May 19, 1G63 ; 
and, in an obscure apartment, commenced a study of the 
municipal law very diligently: while, at the same time, 
his pecuniary means were such as to call upon his best 
wits for subsistence in a profession which bore a distin- 
guished character for gentility. Templars of the present 
day can have a better idea of this dull lodging than of 
most ancient buildings; for, without the aid of Sir Wal- 
ter's lively colouring, they can behold the very original 
of dulness in many corners of the learned spot which they 
people so thickly. Roger North, therefore, finds easy 
credit, when he applauds the good fortune of his relative 1 
in coming into Sir GeofTry Palmer's 2 chambers, which 
were very commodious; having a gallery, and at the end a 
closet, with a little garden. Here Sir Francis North 

a 



1 The Lord Keeper. 

3 GeofTry Palmer was of Carlton in Northamptonshire. He was a very 
considerable lawyer, and the first attorney-general after the Restoration. 
He was employed against the unfortunate Earl of Strafford; and in No- 
vember, 1642, was sent to the Tower for opposing "the Grand Remon- 
strance," after which he retired into Oxfordshire. In May, 1655, he 
was again imprisoned, on suspicion of being concerned in a plot against 
the Protector; and, we are told by a facetious writer, that he never could 
be persuaded to write Oliver any otherwise than with a little o. In 1660 
he was knighted, made attorney to the King, and chief justice of Chester; 
and on the 7th of June, in the same year, a baronet. His wife was 
Margaret, daughter of Sir Francis Moore, serjeant-at-law, of Fawley, 
Berks, by whom he had four sons and two daughters. He died, May 5, 
1670, at Hampstead, aged 72, and was interred, having first lain in state 
in the Middle Temple Hall, with great funeral honours. It was to a 
cultivated friendship with Edward, the fourth son of Sir GeofTry, that 
the Lord Keeper North owed an introduction to the family of that great 
pleader, and much of his subsequent good fortune. 



20 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



situation so eligible, that a few more such would brighten 
up the countenance of many a recluse of this day. 
The saying of Juvenal — 

Magnis virtutibus obstat 
Res angusta domi — * 

seems most applicable, where the sufferer is of a modest 
and retiring habit; but fails of its point, when poverty 
drives forth the man of pleasantry and humour to seek 
the pleasures of society, and makes him acquire by his 
ingenuity an access to those festivities he would vainly 
dream of in his domestic solitude. Jeffreys was not the 
man to sit silently in his chamber, either mourning over 
the depths of the law, or indulging in that paradise of 
anticipation, the advent of clients : he was out and abroad 
in season and out of season; grave with the grave, and 
cheerful with the gay. 

Most probably he was never a profound lawyer ; and 
these holiday-makings were certainly obstacles to the at- 
tainment of a difficult science. But there were other 
reasons which diverted him from a course of perpetual 
application — other temptations which fell in with his ar- 
dent disposition, and easily seduced him from his abode 
of silence. 

The tide of conviviality had now strongly set in ; to 
refuse the social glass would have been to court the 
martyrdom of Puritanism : every countenance was lighted 
up by the new-born hilarities of the Restoration — every 
heart felt relieved from the stern austerities of the repub- 



' " Slow rises worth, by poverty deprest." 

Johnson. 



LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 21 

lican tyrant; and this change agreed exactly with the 
temper of our promising student. He was now in a con- 
dition to consider every free dinner as a boon of the first 
order, and was very willing in return to enliven the en- 
tertainment with his jests and sallies. Indeed, he was 
not the first student who has readily deserted his apart- 
ment to become an animated and welcome member of the 
cheerful board; or who has forgotten to return thither 
when summoned to the drawing-room, where his wit and 
address have made him equally a favourite. 

Yet these freedoms with Littleton and Coke, truly hos- 
tile as they must be to the character of a black-letter 
scholar, arc calculated to give the man who ventures on 
them an enlarged acquaintance with the world ; and when 
a man has determined to push his fortune unaided by 
interest or influence, how much is done by effrontery, 
and a certain easy indifference to the rules by which others 
are governed, and abide ! These last qualities were emi- 
nently possessed by Mr. Jeffreys ; they accorded remarka- 
bly with his versatile genius, which seldom failed to take 
advantage of a beneficial change, or make any sacrifice 
consistent with personal advancement. 

The following whimsical lines are to be found in an old 
poem, called "Jeffreys' Elegy." 

" I very well remember, on a night, 
Or rather on the peep of morning light, 
When sweet Aurora, with a smiling eye, 
Call'd up the birds to wonted melody, — 
Dull Morpheus with his weight upon me leant; 
Half-waking, and yet sleeping, thus I dreamt. 
Methought I saw a lawyer at his book, 
Studying Pecunia, but never Cooke; 
He scorned Littleton and Plowden too, 
With mouldy authors he'd have naught to do." 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



It might have been supposed, that as this lawyer was 
launched upon the world at the time when regal glories 
were revived, he would have lost no opportunity of proving 
himself a steady loyalist, and more especially as aa in- 
dulgence in unrestrained pleasure was familiar with the 
career which he proposed forjiimself. But although the 
public voice was in favour of royalty, a host of discontented 
sufferers, angry republicans, and disaffected persons re- 
mained, to whom rest seemed a burden, and tranquillity 
a crime. This is not the place for us to enter into the 
reasons of this disgust: it is sufficient to say that their 
labours were unceasing to procure converts to their cause ; 
that their encouragement when they had found a partisan 
was no less abundant ; and that, amongst the society which 
they had thus zealously drawn together, the needy and 
ambitious Jeffreys was numbered. He had now the means 
of turning his insinuating address to an excellent account ; 
and he soon gained access to the chief of the party, with 
whom he so fully ingratiated himself, as to leave a con- 
viction of his capacity and readiness to further their de- 
signs. Nor was he backward to perceive that a great 
impression had been made by his blustering forwardness ; 
and that their patronage would, at that moment, be of in- 
calculable benefit to a beginner at the bar, to whom the 
united efforts of a faction, however obnoxious or incon- 
siderable, would be far preferable to the obscurity in which, 
unconnected as he was, he might expect for some time to 
be involved. 

But this was not all: the difficulties of his pecuniary 
means 1 were ever present with him; and what scruples 

1 His must have been at this time a perpetual "pecuniary crisis."* 



*The cant word during the great commercial panic of 1823 and lc26. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 23 



could be found sufficient to deter a licentious adventurer 
from pursuing a course likely to extricate him from the 
pressure of want, and give free play to his luxuries? 
Talents like his were not to be monopolized without a 
speedy return for the services they rendered; and thus 
he soon became a caressed and cherished pensioner upon 
his new friends : his allowance was no longer a source of 
apprehension : if he felt any anxiety, it was to display 
all possible zeal and energy in the cause of those who 
were so bountifully feeding him. 

Thus, he would talk, write, or fight for them if required ; 
and it is further related of him, that, in the hour of revelry, 
he would drink on his knees the most approved toasts 
among the mal-contents, which, as may be conjectured, 
were not a little treasonable : so that there quickly sprang 
from the rustic brood of a Welsh gentleman, a champion 
armed at all points for the destruction of kingly power. 



2-1 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



CHAPTER II. 

Jeffreys pleads at Kingston at the age of eighteen, two years before he is 
called to the bar — Paucity of lawyers — Boldness of his carriage — His 
clear enunciation — Ingenious artifice to obtain briefs — Cross-examining 
— Disinterested motive of Jeffreys' marriage with the kinswoman of 
the heiress whom he first courted — Amiable temper of his wife, Lady 
Sarah — He receives countenance from a namesake, Alderman Jeffreys 
— He is appointed common-serjeant — His blustering concealment of a 
bribe — Jeffreys betrays the democrats, and accedes to the court party 
— Friendship with Chiffinch, the King's page — Jeffreys, recorder of 
London, owes his advancement to political tergiversation. 

It has been asserted, that the young aspirant was 
never called regularly to the bar ; whilst, according to 
others, he performed the exercises allotted to students, 
and, having complied with the customs of his Inn, was 
published in the ordinary way, if we except his being pro- 
moted over the heads of elder graduates through the in- 
terest which he made with the benchers. Perhaps this 
irregularity was alleged against him in after-times, when 
every tale to his discredit met doubtless with a ready be- 
liever; but the origin of the report may be traced be- 
yond question to his conduct at Kingston assizes, during 
the plague. There, when the hearts of many, and amongst 
others those of the counsellors, were failing them, by rea- 
son of the neighbouring calamity, this youth, although but 
eighteen, put a gown upon his back and began to plead ; 
and although he continued to act as an advocate con- 
tinually from that time, it is certain that he was not called 
to the bar until two years afterwards ; and he was pro- 
bably admitted to speak upon that emergency, from the 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 25 



impracticability of inquiring into his qualification, which, 
on his own part, so far from denying, he most probably 
vehemently asserted. Indeed, the lawyers had been of 
late so much thinned by the calamities of civil war and 
pestilence, that the number of admittances at Gray's Inn 
had decreased from the usual quantity of one hundred 
and upwards, to a number nearly as low as fifty ; on which 
account, a daring interloper might enter the field with a 
success to which in ordinary times he would have been 
utterly a stranger. 

However gloomy the early days of Jeffreys's novitiate 
might have been, he could not be said to have embarked 
as an advocate without support ; for he was backed in the 
first instance by the active confederacy, whose organ he 
had been. The party had been delighted with his zeal 
for them, had foretold his future success, and applauded 
the choice of his profession ; and they now combined to 
give him their united confidence and interest. 

It was at Guildhall, Hickes's Hall, and before inferior 
courts, that he first essayed his powers ; and these he at 
first preferred to Westminster, by reason of the frequency 
of their sittings, and the comparative ease which attended 
the despatch of business there ; and there is good reason 
to believe that he went the home circuit. 

He was of a bold aspect, and cared not for the coun- 
tenance of any man : his tongue was voluble ; his words 
audible, and clearly understood ; 1 and he never spared any 

1 The following testimony to his loud voice took place at the trial of 
Sir Patience Ward for perjury. It was necessary to call people as wit- 
nesses who had heard Sir Patience give evidence at a former trial, and 
among these was Mr. Northey. 

Mr. Serjeant Jeffreys to Northey—" You heard my question, when I 

3 



26 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



which were at all likely to assist his client. 1 These ad- 
vantages soon forced him into notice : so that fees, the 
forerunners of legal preferment, soon crowded upon him ; 
and we are even told, that persons would put a brief into 
his hand in the middle of a cause which they perceived 
likely to turn against them. He was not above adopting 
any artifice which might raise him in the estimation of 
those with whom he associated : so that, when he was 
sitting in a coffee-house, his servant would come to him 
under his previous direction, and say, that company at- 
tended him in his chamber, which was the signal for him 
to huff, and desire them to be told to stay a little, and 
that he would come presently. This ingenious trick 
helped forward his reputation for business ; and it is not 
by any means an exaggeration to say, that he found him- 
self in considerable practice sooner than almost any one 
of his contemporaries. 

Nevertheless he sometimes received a check, in com- 
mon with many others of his brethren, when they ven- 
ture upon the occasional recreation of bantering wit- 
nesses, and in return meet now and then with a smart 



said to him his invention was better than his memory; upon your oath, 
upon what occasion was it ? " 

Mr. Northey — "I can't say, Sir George, what; but your voice being 
much louder than other men's, I heard you plainly." 

* The description given of him by a poetaster of those days has some- 
thing in confirmation of this : — 

" But yet he's chiefly devil about the mouth." 

And again: 

" Oft with success this mighty blast did bawl, 
Where loudest lungs and biggest words win all." 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 27 



stroke of humour, which coming from the intended butt 
of the auditory, seldom fails to disconcert the astonished 
assailant. A country-fellow was giving his evidence clad 
in a leather doublet, 1 and Mr. Jeffreys, who was counsel 
for the opposite party, found that his testimony was 
"pressing home." When he came to cross-examine, he 
bawled forth; "You fellow in the leather doublet, pray 
what have you for swearing ? " The man looked steadily 
at him, and, "Truly, sir," said he, "if you have no more 
for lying than I have for swearing, you might wear a 
leather doublet as well as I." Of course every body 
laughed, and the neighbourhood rang with the bluntness 
of the reply. 

He had another rebuff when he was recorder. There 
was a wedding somewhere, — and those to whom it apper- 
tained to pay for the music at the nuptials refused the 
money, on which an action was brought; and as the 
" musitioners " were proving their case, the judge called 
out, — "You fiddler!" This made the witness wroth, 
and he appeared to be disgusted ; but shortly afterwards 
he called himself a "musitioner," on which Jeffreys 
asked, what difference there was between a "musitioner" 
and a fiddler. "As much, sir," said the man of melody, 
"as there is between a pair of bagpipes and a recorder." 

One more story: — Some gentleman in the course of 
his evidence was making use of the law terms lessor and 
lessee, assignor and assignee ; which might have escaped 
observation, had not his testimony been directly against 



" His doublet was of sturdy buff, 
And tho' not sword, yet cudgel-proof." 

Hudibras. 



28 LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 



Jeffreys's client: "You there, with your law terras of 
your lessor and lessee, and of your assignee and your 
assignor, do you know what a lessee or lessor is? I 
don't believe that you know that, for all your formal evi- 
dence." "Yes, Sir George," said the witness, in reply 
to this, gasconade, "but I do, and I'll give you this in- 
stance : if I nod to you, I am the nodder, and if you 
nod to me, then I am the nodclee." 

A lucky advocate, such as we have just spoken of, could 
scarcely hope for any better stroke of fortune at this 
time than a successful marriage, and he had been by no 
means unmindful of this chance. He had acquired a very 
winning air amongst the fairer sex, and was therefore the 
more qualified to gain the hearts of women, whose gene- 
rosity will often pass by unheeded the prejudices of birth 
and wealth, where they meet with the plausible address 
of an affable and earnest suitor. 

An opportunity was not long wanting ; for Jeffreys 
thought the daughter of a merchant who had thirty thou- 
sand pounds, a prize far too valuable to be left unattempted. 
He accordingly prepared for the trial, and gained over a 
kinswoman and companion of the lady, through whom he 
silently addressed her. His cause was espoused so warmly 
by the disinterested relation whom we have mentioned, 
that it seems very likely that the heiress would have 
yielded to her friend's recommendation ; but the suspicions 
of her father were aroused by some accident which can- 
not now be known: the plot was unravelled, the daughter 
effectually secured, and the unfortunate negotiator dis- 
missed and discarded. 

Upon this sad denouement, the kinswoman came 
hastily towards London, to acquaint the disappointed 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 29 



lover with the failure of his cause. He went to her on 
this occasion to hear the relation of the whole circum- 
stance, when a result most unforeseen and unexpected 
arose from the visit. He applauded her zeal for his wel- 
fare, the hazard which she had incurred for him, and com- 
passionated the calamity which had befallen her on his 
account ; and which was still more grateful and generous, 
and the more extraordinary for a man of his aspiring 
character, he proposed, as some satisfaction for her mis- 
fortunes, that she should be a substitute for her rich re- 
lation ; in a word, that she should be his wife. 

There are persons who, if an obnoxious character 
should by chance perform a kind office, are nevertheless 
quite ready to attribute his benevolence to some in- 
terested motive, or to neutralize the good bearing of it 
by some subtle insinuation; in the minds of such, this 
conduct on the part of the young advocate would natu- 
rally give rise to much conjecture, and, considering the 
future conduct of the man, would provoke an unfavoura- 
ble interpretation if there were any room for it. But it 
is worthy of consideration, that amongst all the faults 
with which this judge has been charged, whatever may 
have been his anxiety to grasp large possessions, what- 
ever his eagerness to feed his own ambition at the ex- 
pense of others ; — a want of generosity, independently of 
that ambition, has never been attributed to him, but 
rather a habit of prodigality ; and there is not any rea- 
son why censures of a new kind should be laid upon one 
who has been already the object of so many. This was 
certainly one of those bursts of good feeling which spring 
occasionally from the darkest of men, — a bright gleam 
of sunshine amidst a world of mist. 
3* 



30 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



On the 23d of May, 1667, he married, at Allhallows 
Church, Barking, Sarah, the daughter of Thomas Nee- 
sham, A. M. And it was by no means a discreditable 
alliance: he had espoused the daughter of a clergyman; 
and although she could not be said to be mistress of 
thousands, it seems that she brought her husband three 
hundred pounds. And he had not erred in judgment, if 
he foresaw that his partner had possessions of much 
greater price than the pittance of money which he re- 
ceived with her, since she proved an excellent wife ; — a 
very great acquisition to one of his careless and dissolute 
manners. By this lady he had several children, of whom 
we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. 

As the tide of Jeffrey's fortune set in first at Guild- 
hall, it is no wonder that we soon find him wedded to 
the luxuries and jovialities of the great city. His chief 
object was to make an interest for himself in London; 
and by the carelessness of his disposition, and his love 
for social hours, he succeeded in gaining the affections of 
many opulent merchants. There were, indeed, two alder- 
men of the same name with himself about this time; 1 and 

* John Jeffreys, elected sheriff of London, and alderman of Bread-street, 
in 1661 ; but discharged from both offices on paying fines. 

Robert Jeffreys, sheriff in 1674, and knighted. He was elected alder- 
man of Cordwainer's ward in 1676, and lord mayor in 1686, died in 1704. 
An hospital was erected in Kingsland Road in 1712, pursuant to his will, 
for as many of the founder's relations as should apply for the charity; 
and in default thereof, for fifty-six poor members of the company. He 
was buried at St. Dionis Backchurch, where there is a stately monument 
to his memory. 

Jeffrey Jeffreys, knt. sheriff in 1700, alderman of Portsoken 1701, died 
at Roehampton in 1709, and was buried at St. Andrew Undershaft. 

One of these, probably Robert, was called, by way of distinction (x*t' 
f^X'l 1 ')) "'he great smoker." 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 31 



although it does not seem to he agreed whether they 
were in any way related to him, there being assertions 
on both sides ; — one of them, a great smoker, took a vast 
fancy to his namesake, and very soon determined to push 
his fortune with all the strength of his purse and con- 
nexion, which was far from being inconsiderable. 

Accordingly, young as he was, scarcely indeed twenty- 
three, on the resignation or surrender of Sir Richard 
Browne, Bart., he was made common Serjeant. 

This elevation took place March 17, 1670-71. But 
he was not yet a servile favourite ; for either presuming 
upon the good-will which he had secured by his address 
among the citizens, or impelled by that confidence which 
so often accompanies success, he was accustomed to set 
the authority of the mayor and aldermen at defiance, and, 
in fact, he never rested until he had placed the city en- 
tirely at his devotion. How he conducted himself with 
respect to the orphanage dues, with which he was con- 
cerned by virtue of his office, 1 we are not informed: had 
there, however, been any cause of complaint against him 
on this ground, posterity would probably, through the 
zeal of some enemy, have been made acquainted with it. 
Yet, as far as interest would avail, the following story 
will show that he could control the application of the 
funds, even when recorder. 

A country gentleman married a city orphan, and de- 
manded her fortune, about =£1100, but could not procure 
it. At length, all friends failing, he betook himself to 
Mr. Recorder with ten guineas in hand, which the learned 



1 See Bohun's Privilegia Londini, 1723, p. 329, where the business of 
the common serjeant with these orphans' portions is described. 



32 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



officer received, and informed his visiter that the court 
of aldermen would sit on a certain day, naming it. The 
gentleman attended it. "-Sirrah! what's your busi- 
ness?" quoth Jeffreys. The application was made in 
form. Had he asked the consent of the court of alder- 
men? To which the suitor replied in the negative. 
Jeffreys complimented him forthwith with the terms 
rogue and rascal, and told him he should have asked 
leave of the court for such a marriage. The gentleman 
asked pardon, and pleaded ignorance of the city customs, 
but this did not save him from fresh abuse. Neverthe- 
less, there soon appeared a note from the great man, 
authorizing the receipt of the money; and all the blus- 
tering was ascribed to an anxiety on the part of Mr. Re- 
corder that the court should not peer into the bribe. 

We shall now have occasion to speak of an entire 
revolution in the political prospects of our wary common 
Serjeant. The reader has been apprized of the subtlety 
and address with which he became acquainted with the 
secrets of a faction, as well as of the outward regard 
which he professed for his disaffected friends ; and it has 
been no secret, that of all the men who ever thirsted for 
preferment, Jeffreys was the most eager. Some, who 
have in view the prospect of considerable good which 
they cannot reach without a sacrifice of their ancient 
friendships, will withdraw themselves with a gradual and 
quiet backsliding from their associates ; and while they 
forswear the inconsistent intercourse, will hold the confi- 
dence inviolate which has been reposed in them. Others 
again, advancing a little farther on the same ground, 
although they have gained sufficient boldness to betray 
the counsels which have been intrusted to them, have 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 33 

yet abstained from grosser acts of hostility, and have 
patiently anticipated the fruits of their apostacy. But 
we have now a character before us, who would have held 
this proficiency in changing sides as merely trifling; he 
had not only the nerve to desert his confederates, and 
to expose their secrets, but to harass them with furious 
persecution; and if he met with any in after life, to 
treat them "not only as if they were his greatest enemies, 
but as if they were the common enemies of mankind." 

Well may a reason be demanded for this most singular 
proceeding: we have none to give as it respects his 
friends, for it seems that they had given him no provoca- 
tion; but as it respects his preferment, when we come to 
detail the result, it would be weakness to say otherwise 
than that reasoning on the subject must be superfluous. 

The court party had become triumphant, and places 
and honours, which flowed abundantly from them, were 
the rewards of a pliant favourite and an easy conscience. 
Comparatively obscure as the common Serjeant might 
be, nature had never denied him a yielding and careless 
demeanour ; so that in these respects he was a fitting 
candidate for the favour of those in high office. He had, 
moreover, the sense to know that employments were 
never bestowed upon the factious, unless they gave strong 
proof of their regeneration, and by some bold stroke con- 
firmed their apostate acts. He had held his present 
situation for some years, was in a vast career of forensic 
business, and, which weighed still more with him, the 
recorder, Sir John Howel, 1 was spoken of as likely to 

1 Howel presided at the trial of the celebrated William Penn for a tu- 
multuous assembly, and treated his prisoners with a ferocity which 
Jeffreys could not have excelled. In the State Trials he is called 
Thomas Howel, Recorder. 



34 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



quit his place. Now, although the gradual ascent from 
the one of these offices to the other was not, as at present, 
by any means common, it could not fail to strike Jeffreys, 
that, if he showed a bold disposition to serve the court, 
he might be made recorder; and that there could not be 
a more favourable conjuncture for a turn in his politics 
than one which promised a vacancy he could so faithfully 
supply, for just then the city was on very fair terms 
with the government. 

He soon decided, changed at once, made no secret of 
his treachery, and bade defiance to the revenge of those 
whom he had thus abandoned. 1 

But reason suggests that we should seek a better cause 
for the kind reception of this man by the court, than his 
being a sudden renegade from a discontented and de- 
feated party ; since, whatever might have been his flexi- 
bility, whatever the nature of his disclosures, he could 
scarcely have expected impunity, much less promotion, 
by virtue of this tergiversation. One writer 2 attributes 
this result to a successful ambition on the part of Jef- 
freys for advancement ; another 3 speaks of his accumu- 
lating profits and connexion ; but Mr. North, in his Life 
of Lord Guilford, seems to throw much more light upon 
the subject by giving a note of the Lord Keeper himself 

1 Well, quoth Sir G., the Whigs may think me rude, 
Or brand me guilty of ingratitude; 
At my preferment they (poor fools!) may grudg, 
And think me fit for hangman more than judg; 
But though they fret, and bite their nails, and brawl, 
He'll slight them, and go kiss dear Nelly Wall. (Nell Gwyn.) 

Midsummer Moon. 

2 The author of his Life and Character, 1725. 

3 The author of the Bloody Assizes. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 35 



regarding this affair. 1 After introducing the celebrated 
royal page, Chiffinch, 2 as a complete court spy, and a 

1 We give the quotation at length, being in itself highly interesting : 
" Then being acquainted with Will. Chiffinch (the trusty page of the back 
stairs,) struck in, and was made recorder." This Mr. Chiffinch was a 
true secretary as well as page ; for he had a lodging at the back stairs, 
which might have been properly termed the spy office, where the King 
spoke with particular persons about intrigues of all kinds ; and all little in- 
formers, projectors, &c, were carried to Chiffinch's lodging. He was a 
most impetuous drinker, and, in that capacity, an admirable spy ; for he 
let none part from him sober, if it were possible to get them drunk; and 
his great artifice was pushing idolatrous healths of his good master, and 
being always in haste, for the king is coming, which was his word. Nor, 
to make sure work, would he scruple to put his master's salutiferous 
drops (which were called the King's, of the nature of Goddard's,) into 
the glasses; and being a Hercules, well breathed at the sport himself, 
he commonly had the better, and so fished out many secrets, and disco- 
vered men's characters, which the king could never have obtained the 
knowledge of by any other means. It is likely that Jeffreys, being a 
pretender to main-feats with the citizens, might forward himself, and be 
entertained by Will. Chiffinch; and that, which at first was mere spying, 
turn to acquaintance, if not friendship, such as is apt to grow up between 
immane drinkers; and from thence might spring recommendations of 
him to the king, as the most useful man that could be found to serve his 
Majesty in London, where was need enough of good magistrates, and 
such as would not be, as divers were, accounted no better than traitors. 
— 8vo. ed. vol. ii. pp. 98, 99. 

a There were two Chiffinchs, both closet-keepers to King Charles, per- 
haps father and son, but the latter is the most notorious character. The 
former is mentioned by Evelyn, and by Pepys in his Diary, who says 
that he died in 1666. The latter, therefore, must have been the compa- 
nion of Jeffreys. This man was the royal pimp, and used to find con- 
stant employment in discovering new faces for his master. He lived 
much with Nell Gwyn at Filberd's, which was a favourite seat of the 
king in Berkshire; and it was his duty to see that every accommodation 
was provided for the fair courtezan. It was Chiffinch who introduced 
the priest Hudleston to the king's dying bed, when the bishops were re- 
quested to withdraw for a season, little dreaming that their sovereign 
was on better terms with the Tope than with the followers o[ Luther. 



36 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



most incorrigible wine-bibber, he tells us that Jeffreys was 
in the habit of keeping company with this trusty servant, 
and that something like regard sprang up between them ; 
whence it happened that a strong recommendation of 
Chiffinch's guest went forth to his Majesty, as a person 
likely to do good service. 

It seems that the era of this entertainment and confi- 
dence was that in which the young lawyer was immersing 
himself in faction, kneeling at one table to drink King 
Charles as "the god of his idolatry," at another, to 
pledge confusion to his reign. 

A conclusion almost irresistible results from this in- 
quiry ; so that we are tempted to consider Jeffreys during 
much of this interval as a spy of the court, pledged deep 
by Chiffinch on one side, and paid by the foes to royalty 
on the other ; that he was playing his game like a gene- 
ral, who is prepared to act on the offensive when occa- 
sion offers ; that he would have held to the mal-contents 
if the crown had been vanquished, as he deserted them 
when the city honours were blossoming within his grasp. 
It is probable, also, that about this time, he became ac- 
quainted with the celebrated Duchess of Portsmouth 
through this channel of favouritism ; certain it is, that 
allusion was made in the ballads of those times to Her 
Grace as an enemy to Monmouth, and no mean friend to 
our recorder. 

Monmouth's tamer, Jeffreys' advance, 
Foe to England, spy to France, 
False and foolish, proud and bold, 
Ugly, as you see, and old. 

Duchess of Portsmouth's Picture. 

La fin couronne les ceuvres. Sept. 14, 1G77, he was 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 37 



knighted ; and on the resignation of Sir William Dolben, 1 
who was made a judge of the King's Bench, was elected 
Oct. 22, 1678, recorder of London ; or, as he himself 
termed it, the "mouth-piece of the city;" thus attaining 
to be capital judge of the Guildhall, in which he first be- 
gan his prosperous pleading. There were three other can- 
didates, Mr. Richardson, a judge of the Sheriff's Court ; 
Mr. Turner, of Gray's Inn ; and Mr. Roger Belwood, 2 a 
barrister of the Middle Temple ; and Nicholls, in his His- 
tory of Leicestershire, has furnished a note extracted from 
the city records, from whence it appears that Sir George 
was "freely and unanimously elected by scrutiny." 



1 William Dolben was recorder of London, after the cession of Sir 
John Howel. He was made judge of the King's Bench in October, 1678; 
but removed from that place in 1683 to make room for Wythens, who 
scrupled less to fulfil the measures of the new court-party. However, 
as soon as the Prince of Orange came in, he was restored to his seat 
again, and died in 1693. There have been some great men of this name ; 
John Dolben, Archbishop of York, and the late Sir William Dolben, Bart, 
and LL.D., whose knowledge of church history was so much distinguished 
during some recent debates on the Test Act. 

Q Roger Belwood was engaged in many of the state prosecutions during 
the latter part of King Charles's reign. He was afterwards a Serjeant, 
and died about 1691. His library was extremely choice, and some rare 
tracts and manuscripts were sold by auction after his decease. — See 
Bibliotheca Belwoodiana. 



38 LIFE OF JEFFREYS 



CHAPTER III. 

Jeffreys, now a widower, espouses the daughter of a former lord mayor — 
" The Westminster Wedding ; " lampoon upon the Town Month, or 
Recorder Jeffreys — The King's Psalter, question of literary piracy — 
Sir Edmondbury Godfrey — Trial of the Jesuit Coleman — The recor- 
der's commiseration of the papists he condemns — Really inimical to 
the Catholics — The sermon-house at Canterbury — Jeffreys defends 
Dangerfield— Cases of libel — Maxims of Jeffreys on this head — Jury- 
men ignore a bill against Smith ; violence and subtlety of the recorder 
foiled — Jeffreys is made Serjeant, Chief Justice of Chester, and a Ba- 
ronet — Duke of York's claims of profits of the new penny-post — Mr. 
Dockra — Baron Weston's reproof of Jeffreys in Court — Lord Dela- 
mere's severe charge against Jeffreys, as a Welsh judge — His brothers, 
Sir Thomas Jeffreys, Dr. Jeffreys, Dean Jeffreys — The question as to 
petitions — Jeffreys is accused of obstructing the voice of the people — 
Subsequent censure of Sir George Jeffreys on his knees at the bar of 
the House of Commons — He is constrained to resign the office of re- 
corder of London — George Treby elected recorder — Case of Verdon ; 
his wit in his own defence. 

The new recorder became a widower shortly before his 
elevation, for lady Jeffreys had died on the fourteenth of 
the preceding February :" upon this, he lost no time in 
repairing the domestic breach; and while he had proved 
that his first marriage had been an effusion of generosity, 
he showed by his second choice that he was not unwilling 
to unite attachment with interest. He, accordingly, made 
his advances to the widow of a Montgomeryshire gentle- 
man, 2 a daughter of Sir Thomas* Bludworth, 3 who had 

1 She was buried on the eighteenth, in the vault of Aldermanbury 
church. 3 Mr. Jones. 

* An account of this knight is given in a subsequent page. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 39 



been lord mayor, and for many years one of the city re- 
presentatives, and he very soon succeeded in his wishes, 
for the citizens of London were always ready at that time 
to match their children with favoured courtiers. 1 

He married this lady about May, 1678, not more than 
three months from the death of the former ; and by her 
also had several children, whom we shall mention at a 
future time. The assertion of several writers, that his 
first wife lived to see him chief justice of England, — is 
therefore clearly ill-founded, though the mistake might 
have arisen from the register of burials in St. Mary, Al- 
dermanbury, where the lady Sarah Jeffreys is stated to 
have died in 1703; whereas his second wife, Lady Ann, 
certainly died in that year. 

It was indeed time that Mrs. Jones should again enter 
into the legitimate state of marriage, for she certainly 
was brought to bed of a son much too early for a common 
calculator to say otherwise than that there had been a 
mistake some where. And Jeffreys was once very un- 
comfortably reminded of this precipitancy by a lady who 
was giving her evidence pretty sharply in a cause which 
he was advocating. "Madam, you are very quick in 
your answers!" cries the counsel. "As quick as I am, 
Sir George, I was not so quick as your lady." 2 

We cannot forbear to. insert here that very curious 
copy of verses, called — 



1 A proof of this is the earnestness with which Sir John Lawrence, the 
city broker, desired the union of one of his daughters with Mr. Solicitor- 
general North.— See Life of Lord Guilford, 4to. p. 79. 

a There were reasons, therefore, for Jeffreys's second marriage so soon 
after the death of his wife. 



40 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



A WESTMINSTER WEDDING, OR THE TOWN MOUTH; ALIAS, THE f 
OF LONDON AND HIS LADY: FEB. 17, 1G79. 

'Tis said when George did dragon slay, 

He saved a maid from cruel fray : 

But this Sir George, whom knaves do brag on, 

Mist of the maid, and caught the dragon; 

Since which, the furious beast so fell, 

Stares, roars, and yawns like mouth of hell: 

He raves and tears, his bad condition 

Distracts his mind, as late petition. 

Peace man, or beast (or both) to please ye, 

A parliament will surely ease ye. 

Marriage and hanging both do go 

By destiny ; Sir George, if so, 

You stand as fairly both to have, 

As ever yet did fool or knave: 

The first your wife hath help'd ye to; 

The other as a rogue 's your due ; 

No other way is left to tame ye; 

And if you have it not, then blame me. 

But ere it comes, and things are fitting, 

Judge of his merit by his getting : 

He's got a ven'mous heart, and tongue 

With vipers, snakes, and adders hung, 

By which in court he plays the fury, 

Hectors complainant, law, and jury: 

His impudence hath all laws broken, 

(To the judge's honour be it spoken,) 

For which he got a name that stinks 

Worse than the common jakes or sinks : 

But to allay the scent so hot, 

George from the court has knighthood got, 

Bestow'd upon him for his bawling, — 

A royal mark for caterwauling : 

But certain, George must never boast on't, 

'Cause traitors, cheats, and pimps have most on't. 

Now rogue enough he got in favour, 

To bind good men to worse behaviour, 



Mouth-piece of the city.' 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS.' 41 

And bark aloud they will deceive ye, 
In that he matches tribe of Levi; 
Who now with Pope bear all before 'em, 
Priests made just-asses of the quorum. 
Faith make 'em judges too, most fine-o, 
And then they'll preach it all Divino. 
There's somewhat more that George has got, 
(For Trevor 1 left him, who knows what) 
A teeming lady wife * * 



But one thing more I can't let pass, 

When George with Clodpate 2 feasted last, 

(I must say Clodpate was a sinner, 

To jeer his brother so at dinner,) 

He by his almanack did discover, 

His wife scarce thirty weeks went over, 

Ere she (poor thing !) in pieces fell, 

Which made Mouth stare and bawl like hell. 

What then, you fool ! some wives miscarry, 

And reckon June for January. 

This Clodpate did assert as true, 

Which he by old experience knew, 

But all his canting would not do. 

George put him to 't upon denial, 

Which set him hard as Wakeman's trial : 

Theyrail'd and bawl'd,and kept a pother, 

And like two curs did bite each other, 

Which brought some sport, but no repentance; 

So off they went to Harris' sentence, 

Which soon they pass'd against all laws, 

To glut their rage and popish cause: 

For which injustice, knaves ! we hope 

You'll end together in the rope : 

*. Sir John Trevor, said to be his lady's gallant in the time of her 
widowhood, &c. — Note to the poem. Of this Trevor we shall speak 
hereafter. * Scroggs, lord chief justice of the King's Bench. 

" Benjamin Harris, the book-seller — Note to the poem. 

4* 



42 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



And when the gallows shall you swallow, 
We'll throw up caps, and once more holloa, 
If this we wish from private grudge, 
Or as their merit, England's judge: 
Who seek the nation to enthrall 
Are treacherous slaves and villains all. 
And when confusion such does follow, 
We'll throw up caps, and once more holloa, 

That's their exit, 

Tho' they rex-it, 

We shall grex-it. 

Some persons about this time had printed a Psalter, 
which they called "The King's Psalter," expecting to 
shelter themselves under the authority of so high a name 
from being called to account for their piracy, for they 
had invaded the rights of the Stationers' Company ; but 
this subterfuge did not avail them, since the Company 
immediately brought the matter before the Privy Council, 
and being desirous of retaining a resolute advocate, they 
took the new recorder with them in that capacity. Sir 
George thought this an admirable opportunity for him to 
attract the notice of royalty ; and he, therefore, in open- 
ing the stationers' title to the property which had been 
invaded, ventured upon a very bold speech which had al- 
most ruined any other man. "They," meaning the lite- 
rary pirates, "have teemed," said he, "with a spurious 
brat, which being clandestinely midwived into the world, 
the better to cover the imposture, they lay it at Your 
Majesty's door." Perhaps the King might have been 
flattered (for much depended upon his humour at parti- 
cular times) with this public proclamation of his gallant- 
ries; doubtless, he thought it a most impudent address 
on the part of his loyal recorder ; but so far from resenting 
it, he turned to one of the lords who sat next to him, and 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 43 



said, "This is a bold fellow, I'll warrant him!" and he, 
probably, was so much tickled with it, as to recollect very 
shortly afterwards, that no one could better befriend the 
crest-fallen government than he who had hazarded so 
free a reflection upon the royal person. The stationers 
had a decree in their favour. 

The new magistrate was not destined to be long in- 
active. Every one knoAVS that the furious fanaticism 
against the Catholics burst forth about this time, and that 
the Duke of York's imprudent valour, in demanding an 
investigation of matters which very few at that time knew 
or cared any thing for, kindled the embers, which were 
just expiring, into a flame. That which neither Dr. 
Tongue's hypocrisy, nor Oates's quackery could effect, 
was most fully accomplished by the royal Head of those 
who were so soon to undergo the most wicked and un- 
merited persecution. 

And as though no incitement should be wanting to 
embroil the nation in civil tumult, Sir Edmundbury God- 
frey, who had taken informations against some of the ac- 
cused papists, a man naturally given to vapours and 
melancholy, was found with the marks of strangulation 
upon him in a ditch, and with a sword in his body. His 
spleen is by some considered as sufficient to brand him 
with the crime of suicide ; but there is equal reason to 
believe, that by some dark contrivance of those who after- 
wards reaped such immense harvests, he was made a vic- 
tim to^the^ clamour of the day; the announcement of his 
fate bging- a tocsin against the miserable followers of po- 
pery. At first the people were comparatively passive, 
and seemed contented with a few sacrifices ; and during 
these early scenes of blood, the recorder made his appear- 



44 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



ance, sometimes as counsel for the crown, sometimes as 
judge to pass sentence of death upon the malefactors. 
We shall see presently how the times changed on a ru- 
mour that the plot was to be stifled, and how Jeffreys was 
affected by the alteration. 

He has been charged with violence throughout the 
whole of his professional and judicial career, and no doubt 
he was an overbearing advocate and an intemperate 
judge; but he lived in a day when all men of any spirit 
Avere vehement, and when nearly all judges 1 were given 
to rude language: the marvel would have been, if he had 
shown kindness, when fashion and prejudice ran so 
strongly to the contrary: there could be none to find 
him striking in with the confirmed madness of the age. 2 



1 There must be an exception in favour of Sir Francis North, and per- 
haps one or two others; but North had encouraged a very wary and fox- 
like demeanour during the whole of his life. 

a We do not by any means intend to justify the judge's conduct upon this 
occasion ; the chief object of the biographer being to reveal every feeling of 
human nature in its clearest light. But that which is held to be a crime in 
our age, might have been esteemed a virtue in another ; and it certainly was 
not for a successful recorder, under the crooked policy of Charles, to fore- 
see these most liberal days, when every judicial movement is criticized 
with the utmost rigour. Had the present improvements of the home 
secretary been suggested, it might be said, even twenty years since, 
they certainly had been treated as chimerical, or at least marvellous in 
the extreme; we regard them, beyond a doubt, as proofs of an enlightened 
legislation. We condemn those who have loaded our statute-book with 
capital punishments; but we do not give them credit for that degree of 
information which has sprung up since their day. Whatever^riight have 
been the asperity of Jeffreys, it certainly was not excee^d'jty that of 
Rainsford, Scroggs, Pemberton, or Sanders ; and we must tnefefore be 
content (laying aside all mention of his subsequent conduct) to class him 
with those whose examples he was imitating ; neither exaggerating his 
roughness nor palliating it, by applauding the excesses of which he was 
guilty. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 45 



If it be once admitted that he was not worse than his 
contemporaries, 1 posterity will the more readily do him 
justice in respect of any good qualities which he might 
have possessed; and these again will be displayed in a 
more favourable light, if virulent and unlicensed invective 
can be silenced, though it be but for a moment. 

The first state prosecution against the supposed popish 
conspirators, was the case of Coleman ; and if the account 
of those proceedings, as detailed in the state-trials, be 
carefully examined, it will be made evident, that however 
busy the recorder might have been as counsel for the 
crown, his conduct was mildness itself when compared 
with the harshness of the judges and Serjeants towards 
the accused. And it is worthy of remark, that his anxiety 
for a regular system of evidence, which he was always 
ready to promote when on the bench, appeared upon this 
trial. Counsel were constantly in the habit of interrupt- 
ing the witnesses, and that license was frequently allowed 
to the prisoner; but Jeffreys begged that the court would 
suffer Oates to go on without any interposition to the end 
of his story, which the chief justice promised, but soon in- 
terfered himself as briskly as any one. Ireland, Pickering, 
and Grove, were tried next; and notwithstanding the 
shrewd suspicions which we may entertain at this day of 
the recorder's sincerity, when he affected pity for these 

1 He certainly could not have shown more jocoseness at a capital trial 
than Sir William Dolben, who was a judge after the Revolution. Thwing 
and another were indicted for high treason at York; and in the course of 
his challenges, Thwing said, — " My lord, I shall willingly stand to the 
other jury." — Justice Dolben. "What jury?" — Thwing. "My Lady 
Tempest's jury." — Justice Dolben. " Oh, your servant ! you are either 
very foolish, or take me to be so." 



4G LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



poor people, he went not one step farther in his denun- 
ciation of their religion and customs than other judges, 
who were occasionally called upon to give judgment of 
death upon the papists. The following specimen of his 
seeming commiseration, mixed with reflections on the 
superstitious ceremonies of the Catholics, is curious. 
"Thus I speak to you, gentlemen, not vauntingly; 'tis 
against my nature to insult upon persons in your sad con- 
dition : God forgive you for what you have done ; and I 
do heartily beg it, though you don't desire I should: for, 
poor men ! you may believe that your interest in the world 
to come is secured to you by your masses, but do not well 
consider that vast eternity you must ere long enter into, 
and that great tribunal you must appear before, where 
his masses (speaking to Pickering) will not signify so 
many groats to him; no, not one farthing. And I must 
say it, for the sake of these silly people whom you have 
imposed upon with such fallacies, that the masses can no 
more save thee from a future damnation, than they do 
from a present condemnation." He was next counsel on 
the trial of Green, Berry, and Hill, for the murder of 
Sir Edmondbury Godfrey; and seems again to have exer- 
cised great caution in abstaining from leading the witnesses 
with questions, and eliciting their testimony in a general 
manner, which varies but little from the practice now fol- 
lowed. Here he exhibited a strong sense of humanity 
and justice. A tipstaff had deprived the prisoners of 
their clothes as soon as they had been committed, pre- 
tending that they were his fee; on which the recorder, 
previously to his praying judgment, complained openly to 
the court, and obtained an order that the property should 
be restored; a barbarous custom having been set up in 
favour of this plunder, but disallowed by the judges. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 47 



Shortly afterwards, Langhorn and the Jesuits were con- 
demned, and it fell again to the recorder's lot to pronounce 
the judgment of death, which he did with much apparent 
humanity, regretting that one of his own brethren of the 
bar had brought himself to a fate so untimely, and giving 
express orders that the unfortunate persons should re- 
ceive every comfort, and enjoy the company of their 
friends at all convenient seasons. More tenderness could 
not now be shown to prisoners in that unhappy situation, 
saving, perhaps, the absence of abuse which was then be- 
stowed upon the unfashionable creed. 

The recorder, however, was certainly an object of terror 
to the Romish party, and they used every effort to mollify 
him when they came before him for judgment, but rarely 
with good success ; for he never was at a loss for some 
sarcasm upon their religious opinions. 

Yet it is curious to observe how pliant he seemed when 
the names of the great and powerful were mentioned, 
especially if any high person had expressed himself favour- 
ably towards the accused. As where Starkey, a con- 
demned priest, having been overruled on all the legal ob- 
jections which he had started, happened to plead the very 
gracious reception which he had received some years be- 
fore from the King, the Duke of York, the Chancellor 
Hyde, and the Bishop of London, to whom he had un- 
ravelled some conspiracy; — Jeffreys softened directly, 
spoke of the King as a fountain of mercy, promised to re- 
late every extenuating circumstance to His Majesty, and 
intimated in conclusion the excellent opportunity which 
the prisoner then had of enlightening the government on 
the subject of the plot. It is evident that he had been 
treated hitherto more as the tool than the confidant of 



48 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



the ministry ; for they were then, lying in wait for a con- 
venient handle to brand the whole narration with impos- 
ture, though they dared not as yet brave the infatuation 
of the parliament and the populace. However, he in re- 
ality was never friendly to the Catholics, even when King 
James filled the throne, and it became his interest to 
patronize them. This is confirmed by an anecdote related 
by Sir John Reresby, which he received from the Rev. 
Mr. Gosling of Canterbury, and which he gives entire as 
it was communicated to him. 

" One day, while he was chancellor, he invited my father 
home with him from the King's Chapel, and inquired 
whether there were not a building at Canterbury called 
the Sermon-house, and what use was made of it. My 
father said it was the old Chapter-house, where the dean, 
or his representatives, might convene the choir once a 
fortnight, and hear the chanter's account how well the 
duty had been attended in that time. 'This,' said he, 
'will not do;' and explained himself by saying, that the 
presbyterians had then a petition before the king and 
council, asking it, as a thing of no use, for their meeting- 
house. On this, my father told him, that if it were made 
a chapel for the early prayers, and the choir reserved 
purely for cathedral service, this would be a great con- 
venience, and the Sermon-house would be in daily use. 
'This will do,' said the chancellor : 'pray let the dean and 
chapter know as soon as possible, that I advise them to 
put it to this use without delay;' adding, 'if the presby- 
terians do not get a grant of it, others perhaps will, whom 
you may like still worse.' His advice was taken; and it 
has been the morning-prayer chapel ever since." 

It is not our province to weary the reader with a cte- 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 49 



scription of all the state prosecutions which arose out of 
the pretended popish or presbyterian conspiracies ; the 
recorder was engaged in all, save one or two ; and as the 
convictions multiplied, he grew bolder in his assumptions, 
and more elated with his victories. He was singularly 
resolute in propping up the character of Dangerfield, a 
man who had been disgraced in every possible way, and 
who came branded and pilloried into court for the purpose 
of convicting Lord Castlemaine and the persecuted Mrs. 
Cellier. When the record of this man's conviction for 
uttering counterfeit guineas, and of his subsequent punish- 
ment in the pillory was read, Jeffreys directly replied, 
that he was not the same person, which, however, turned 
out a bad defence. He then combated the objection to 
the witness's competency, which was, that an attainted 
felon could not be restored to his capacity of witness by 
a pardon. And this he did successfully, though, after 
all, the true reason for admitting the testimony came from 
the Court of Common Pleas, whither Mr. Justice Ray- 
mond 1 went to learn the opinions of the judges there. It 
probably came from that great lawyer, Lord Chief Justice 



1 Sir Thomas Raymond was the author of some reports in the common 
law courts. He was made serjeant, Oct. 26, 1677, and a baron of the Ex- 
chequer^ May 5, 1679, though much against his will; for he tells us, that 
he laboured, not without great reason, to prevent it. Feb. 7, 1680, he 
became judge of the Common Pleas; and on the 29th of the following 
April, judge of the King's Bench, in which situation he died soon after- 
wards. He was the father of Robert Lord Raymond, Baron Raymond 
of Abbott's Langley, in the county of Herts, some time solicitor and 
attorney-general, a judge of the King's Bench, and chief justice of that 
court. Lord Raymond, also an author of reports, died in 1732, and was 
interred at Abbott's Langley, where a magnificent monument was erected 
to his memory. The title became extinct in 1753. 

5 



50 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



North; and it was because the offender, having been burnt 
in the hand, had expiated his crime by the punishment, 
which is conformable to the doctrine entertained at this 
day. 

In the prosecutions for libel, also, which were frequent 
about this time, the city advocate was very sanguine, 
sometimes threatening, sometimes coaxing the defendants 
to confess; though in the case of Sir William Scroggs's 1 

' William Scroggs was born at Dedington, Oxon, and became a com- 
moner of Oriel in 1639, at the age of sixteen, although some have held 
him to be the son of a one-eyed butcher near Smithfield-bars, and a big 
fat woman with a red nose like an alewife.* He afterwards went to 
Pembroke College, and proceeded M. A. in 1643. His father had in- 
tended him for the church, and had procured him the reversion of a good 
living, but he took arms for the king, and was captain of a foot company, 
which entirely changed his fortune. He then entered at Gray's Inn, and 
in 1669 was made serjeant, and knighted, and soon after became king's 
serjeant. May 31, 1678, being at the time a judge of the Common Pleas, 
he was promoted to the chief seat in the King's Bench through the Earl 
of Danby, and there ensured many convictions of the supposed popish 
conspirators. However, in the full belief that the sway of parliament 
was all-powerful, and that Shaftesbury was guiding the destinies of the 
state, he one day asked a lord of the privy council, if the lord president 
(Shaftesbury) really had that influence with the king which.he seemed to 
have? The reply was, "No; no more than your footman hath with 
you." Scroggs was converted, and threw cold water on the plot, for 
which he was impeached ; but he escaped on the dissolution of parliament, 
and retired to Weald-hall, near Burntwood, in Essex, with the loss, how- 
ever, of his place. He died of a polypus in the heart in 16S3,^having 
survived his wife, a daughter of Matthew' Blucke, Esq., some time. This 
judge was a great lover of good living; and Sir Matthew Hale, whose 
taste was quite different, refused Scroggs the privilege of a serjeant when 
he was arrested, which made a great talk at the time. His son and heir, 
Sir William Scroggs, sold his estate to Alderman Erasmus Smith. No 



* This was said by Sir William Dugdale, Garter, because Scroggs refused his knight- 
hood-fees, and must therefore be taken cum grano. 
f Some say he died in Essex-street, but surely this must be a blunder for Essex. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 51 

libellers their submission availed them little, since, al- 
though they had been assured by the insinuating counsel 



man was more smartly lampooned by the wits of the day than this turn- 
coat chief justice. Beneath are extracts from some of the squibs which 
were let off against him: — 

Justice in Masquerade, or Scroggs upon Scroggs. 
A butcher's son's judg capital, 
Poor Protestants for to enthral, 

And England to enslave, sirs: 
Lose both our laws and lives we must, 
When to do justice we entrust 

So known an errant knave, sirs. 

Some hungry priests he once did fell 
With mighty strokes, and them to hell 

Sent presently away, sirs: 
Would you know why? the reason's plain ; 
They had no English nor French coin 

To make a longer stay, sirs. 

His father once exempted was 
Out of all juries: why? because 

He was a man of blood, sirs : 
And why the butcherly son (forsooth !) 
Shou'd now be judg and jury both, 

Cannot be understood, sirs. 

The good old man, with knife and knocks, 
Made harmless sheep and stubborn ox 

Stoop to him in his fury : 
But the brib'd son, like greasy oaph, 
Kneels down and worships golden calf, 

And so do's all the jury. 

On the same. 
Since Justice Scroggs Pepys and Dean did bail, 
Upon the good cause did turn his tail, 
For two thousand pounds to buy tent and ale, 
Which nobody can deny. 



52 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



that they would find mercy at his hands, he nearly, if not 
quite, ruined some of them by his strict exaction of justice. 
It must have been with great complacency that Sir George 
echoed the chief justice's expressions in Carr's affair, who 
was indicted for publishing "The Weekly Packet of Ad- 
vice from Rome ;" a trial in which the bias of the govern- 
ment against the plot was pretty strongly manifested : 
when the verdict was given, after the interruptions of a 
tumultuous crowd of people, which considerably annoyed 
Scroggs, he said, "You have done like honest men." To 
which the recorder very joyfully added, " They have done 
like honest men." 

Scroggs was at first a man of the blade, 
And with his father followed the butcherly trade. 
But 'twas the Peter-pence made him a jade, 
Which nobody, &c. 

He'd stand by the protestant cause, he said, 
And lift up his eyes, and cry'd, "We're betray'd; 
But then the pettifogger was in a masquerade, 
Which nobody, &c. 

When Danby mentioned to the king his name, 
He said he had neither honesty nor shame, 
And would play any sort of roguish game, 

Which nobody, &c. 

He swears he'd confound Beddlow and Oates, 
And prove the papists sheep, and the protestants goats, 
And that he's a tool that on property dotes, 
Which nobody, &c. 

The Wolf Justice. 

VERSES FIXT UPON HIS CHAMBER-DOOR. 

Here lives the Wolf Justice, a butcherly knave, 

Likes protestants' goods, but the papists' do's save, &c. 

Pee also the "Westminster wedding," which we have inserted, and 
in which he is called " Clodpate." 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 53 



The recorder, indeed, was always very severe upon 
libellers; but, even on this subject, he sometimes spoke 
very good sense; and his opinion, with regard to the 
proof of malice, which he expressed in Sir Samuel Bar- 
nardiston's case, has been mentioned with much approba- 
tion. "Certainly," said he, (at this time he was chief 
justice) "the law supplies the proof, if the thing itself 
speaks malice and sedition. As it is in murder ; we say 
always in the indictment, he did it by the instigation of 
the devil: can the jury, if they find the fact, find he did 
it not by such instigation? no, that does necessarily 
attend the very nature of such an action or thing. So, 
in informations for offences of this nature, we say, he 
did it falsely, maliciously, and seditiously, which are the 
formal words ; but if the nature of the thing be such as 
necessarily imports malice, reproach, and scandal to the 
government, there needs no proof but of the fact done; 
the law supplies the rest." 

And had he lived in these days, the vengeance of the 
public press would have fallen on him as a subject for 
condign punishment; for when recorder, he was guilty 
of promulging this singular heresy : 

Sir Gr. Jeffreys, Recorder. 
"All the judges of England having met together to 
know whether any person whatsoever may expose to the 
public knowledge any matter of intelligence, or any mat- 
ter whatsoever that concerns the public, they give it as 
their resolution, ' that no person whatsoever could expose 
to the public knowledge any thing that concerned the 
affairs of the public, without license from the king, or from 
such persons as he thought fit to entrust with that power.' " 
5* 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



Observing upon this, says Lord Camden, " Can the 
twelve judges extrajudicially make a thing law to bind 
the kingdom by a declaration, that such is their opinion ? 
I say no; it is a matter of impeachment for any judge to 
affirm it." 

Mr. Recorder Jeffreys was, conformably with his creed, 
very severe upon a poor bookseller named Francis Smith. 
This person had been so indiscreet as to publish a book 
against the expenses of mayors and sheriffs, in which 
there were declamations against feasting and wine, worthy 
of a Spartan. "Debauchery is come to that height," 
said the writer, "that the fifth part of the charge of a 
shrievalty is in wine, the growth of another country." 
However, the grand jury, who (although they might have 
liked wine exceedingly well) could not persuade them- 
selves that these general censures of expense were libel- 
lous, thought fit to endorse that obnoxious word to court 
ears, "ignoramus," upon the bill of indictment ; and this 
was a unanimous ejectment of the charge. However^ 
somebody scraped out the ignoramus, and next sessions the 
bill came forth again, upon which it was resolved with one 
voice to renew the ignoramus, and thus the bill was re- 
turned. Jeffreys flew into immense choler, and sent back 
the bill a third time. But the jury stuck to their fa- 
vourite ignoramus, and again tendered the disgraced 
writing to the incensed recorder, who might well have 
thought that all his interest with mayor and sheriffs 
would fleet away, if this heretical proscription were 
suffered. "God bless me from such jurymen!" vocife- 
rated the city advocate ; " I will see the face of every one 
of them, and let others see them also." And so he or- 
dered the bar to be cleared, that the citizens who had 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



thus acted might be laid open to the public gaze. But 

in vain : — 

Non vultus instantis tyranni 
Mente quatit solida. 

One by one, seriatim, as lawyers say, did the jury, 
seventeen in number, utter ignoramus ; and in a moment, 
blasphemy and perjury were thundered out in their ears : 
they had committed a sin which God would never pardon. 
It was the apotheosis, the anathema maranatha of Mr. 
Recorder. Still the jury say nothing. Utterly inefficient, 
when a firm body of men, sheltered by the imperishable 
constitution of their ancestors, had decided on a matter 
which belonged solely to their jurisdiction, Sir George 
was driven from his high position, and instantly betook 
himself to a land of gins and snares. He doffed the 
lion's hide, and hid himself in the soft sleek coat of the 
fox. "Come, Mr. Smith!" and he beckoned the crest- 
fallen bookseller, who knew that he was on very slippery 
ground ; " there are two other persons besides you whom 
this jury have brought in ignoramus ; but they have been 
ingenuous enough to confess, and I cannot think to fine 
them little enough; they shall be fined but two-pence a- 
piece for their ingenuity in confessing. Well, come, Mr. 
Smith, we know who hath owned both printing and pub- 
lishing this book formerly." Most probably Smith had 
been in the trap before, and had probably escaped with 
some severe injury, as a mouse does who loses the greater 
part of his tail ; and so, says he, " Sir, my ingenuity hath 
sufficiently experienced the reward of your severity al- 
ready formerly; and besides, I know no law commands 
me to accuse myself, neither shall I; and the jury have 
done like true Englishmen and worthy citizens; and 



5(3 LIFE OF JEFFKEYS. 

blessed be God for such a just jury!" Then Jeffreys 
foamed again ; and the bookseller found his way into 
Newgate, and was compelled to give bail. We shall just 
give the sequel. He asked for a copy of his indictment, 
which even Scroggs said he was entitled to ; but Jeffreys 
put it off from time to time, under pretence that his 
private house was not a court, and that he could not 
meddle with ordering any thing there. At last Smith 
got a nice compact charge of seventeen sheets against 
him ; but it gives us pleasure to say, that he ultimately 
got clear of that charge, and indeed of another, at the 
expense of a small fine. This is his winding-up of the 
matter: — "From such a judge, and such a recorder of 
London, and such judgment, good Lord deliver me ! and 
may every true citizen and right Englishman say, Amen." 

It was now time that this persevering zealot should 
receive some token of favour from those whose dictates 
he had so faithfully obeyed. And, indeed, when he had 
once planted himself in the track of preferment, he 
moved on with a speed which has seldom been equalled, 
for the court would have been puzzled to have found 
another so exactly fitted to their service — one who scru- 
pled so little, and did so much. 

He was called serjeant, February 17, 1680 : on which 
occasion he gave rings with the motto — A Deo rex: a 
rege lex: 1 and became a Welsh judge about that time, 
when his brother preached an assize-sermon before him. 
On the 30th of the following April, he had succeeded in 
despoiling Sir Job Charlton of the chief justiceship of 
Chester, which he secured for himself. He was made 

' The king from Gorl; the law from the king. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 57 



king's serjeant on the 12th of May, in the same year; 
and November 17, 1681, was created a baronet. This 
chief justiceship was given him in consideration of his 
loyalty and good services; and the dignity of one of his 
majesty's counsel at Ludlow, with a permission to retain 
the office of recorder, was joined with it. 

Sir Job was an old man, and was most unwilling to 
give up his office, for he had a considerable estate in 
Wales ; but finding the matter determined against him, 
he took it to heart, and going to Whitehall, placed him- 
self so that the king could not avoid seeing him on his 
return from St. James's Park, and "set him down like 
hermit poor." 1 But King Charles espied him at a dis- 
tance, and knowing too well the burden of his speech, 
could not bear to pass him ; but turned short off, and 
went another way. Sir Job was sorry for his master, 
but never sought another interview. He was constituted 
judge of the Common Pleas, where he brought with him 
much dignity and learning. However, it is pleasing to 
reflect, that in the reign of James II., the old judge had 
his quietus in Westminster-hall, and was restored to his 
much-loved station in the principality. 2 

Some time before this, Sir George had gained a firmer 

1 North's Lives. 

2 Sir Job Charlton was not the only chief justice of Chester who loved 
his place. We are told that Sir Eardley Wilmot very anxiously longed 
for that situation by way of retirement, and was only prevented from 
filling it by Mr. Morton, who could not be prevailed on to give it up. 
This was previous to the elevation of Sir Eardley to the chief justiceship 
of the Common Pleas. — Life of Wilmot, by his son. The real reason of 
the removing of Sir Job was his refusal to concede the king's dispensing 
power; but he was doubtless glad to occupy his old seat again, which, 
on petition, was granted him. 



58 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



footing at court by his introduction as solicitor-general 
to the Duke of York. 

On the ripening of the popish persecutions, history ac- 
quaints us, that the Duke retired to Brussels, in confor- 
mity with his brother's advice and request, but not with- 
out having obtained an explicit declaration of Monmouth's 
illegitimacy. His solicitor was very active during this 
season of trouble ; for although no one was more violent 
than he, when the accused came to the bar, he promoted 
in secret every design which could be imagined for shel- 
tering his master, removing the stigma of the plot from 
him, and foiling the obnoxious Exclusion bill. And 
hence it was, that he held so long and powerful a domi- 
nion over the mind of that prince, though he had possibly 
sunk at last, if the religion of the country had changed, 
since it admits of little doubt, that bigotry will forswear 
the warmest friendships. 

It may not be amiss to relate an affair in this place 
connected with the post-office, because, though it will 
carry us forward to the year 1682, it entirely arose from 
Jeffreys' management of the Duke's property. By a 
statute passed in the early part of King Charles's reign, 1 
the post-office was settled upon the Duke of York and his 
heirs male. William Dockra, a merchant, in a subse- 
quent part of the reign, invented a penny-post, which he 
completely arranged, and directed for a considerable 
time, with the approbation of the inhabitants of London. 
But the Duke, being the general grantee of revenues ac- 
quired in this manner, it occurred to his solicitor, that 
he was entitled to those also which Mr. Dockra was en- 



1 15 Car. 2, chap. 14. 



LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 59 



joying; and finding the project capable of high improve- 
ment, he filed an information on the post act against 
that person, and obtained a conviction against him in 
the King's Bench. 

Had Dockra been a wise man, it seems, that he might 
have received for his life the place of commissioner for 
tho management of this post, yet he would not submit 
himself, but continued his fruitless complaints, while the 
crown at length became possessed of the benefit, which 
has remained in the same hands ever since. 1 However, 
the disappointed merchant made another attempt at the 
Revolution to gain some reparation for his loss by me- 
morializing the House of Commons, and printing an ap- 
peal to the public in the shape of an advertisement. 2 
Here, he complains of the injustice done him by the then 
late king, who had, under colour of law, deprived him of 
his rights, without any manner of recompense, and states 
the progress of his petition to Parliament, which was ad- 
journed before his case was heard. He tells us also, 
that there had been an "Answer to Mr. Dockra's case 
concerning the Penny-post;" to which he wrote a reply, 



* About 1776, a penny-post was set up in Edinburgh, by Mr. William- 
son, unconnected with the general post-office. It met with but indiffe- 
rent encouragement for some years, doubts being entertained as to its 
punctuality in delivering the letters; by degrees, however, it seemed to 
be advancing in estimation, and was more frequently employed. Twenty, 
years after, the general post-office, by virtue of the act of parliament, 
prohibiting the conveyance of letters by any but those employed under 
the postmaster-general, took the penny-post entirely into its own hands; 
and Mr. Williamson was allowed an annuity during life, ecpial to what 
his private establishment yielded. 

* An advertisement on the behalf of William Dockra, merchant, con- 
cerning the penny-post. 



60 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



but did not print it. If we may believe his account, he 
had a wife and eight children, and had spent many thou- 
sand pounds upon the concern. 1 

And now, the new Welsh chief justice increased in 
haughtiness every day, and his vanity advanced in an 
equal ratio with his preferments and favour. But some 
of the judges would not brook this torrent of conceit, and 
he received a very severe lesson from Mr. Baron Weston 2 
at the Kingston Midsummer assizes for 1679. Being 
counsel there in some cause at Nisi Prius, he took on 
himself to ask all the questions, and tried to browbeat 
the other side in their examination of witnesses, when 
the judge bade him hold his tongue. Some words passed, 
in the course of which he told the baron that he was not 
treated like a counsellor, being curbed in the manage- 
ment of his brief. "Ha!" fiercely returned the judge: 
"since the King has thrust his favours upon you, in 
making you chief justice of Chester, you think to run 



1 He had a small pension at last. He is praised for the ingenuity of 
his discovery, in the State Poems, vol. iii. p. 246. 

2 There have been four Westons judges of our courts : Richard Weston, 
of the Common Pleas, in the reign of Elizabeth; Richard Weston a ba- 
ron of the Exchequer, in the time of Charles I. ; James Weston, a baron, 
in the same reign; and Richard Weston, to whom allusion has been 
made in the text. The two barons of Charles the First's reign were 
celebrated for their courage ; and this Sir Richard in no wise came be- 
hind them in resolution : for, being impeached for some words he had let 
drop in a charge on the circuit, he, unlike to Scroggs and Jones, who had 
incurred the same displeasure, and were much troubled at it, was "gay 
and debonair as at a wedding." Indeed, he desired nothing so much as 
a great balk with the Commons ; in the course of which he intended to 
set up Magna Charta, the judicium pari/em, and his lawful challenges — 
in fact, to dispute every inch of ground. But the prosecution was 
dropped. He died March 23, 1681. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 61 



down every body : if you find yourself aggrieved, make 
your complaint; here's nobody cares for it." The coun- 
sel said, he had not been used to make complaints, but 
rather to stop those that were made; but the judge again 
enjoined him silence. Jeffreys sat down, and wept with 
anger. 

Lord Delamere, afterwards Earl of Warrington, in a 
speech which he delivered on the corruption of judges, 
was very severe upon the new chief justice of the County 
Palatine. He spoke thus upon that point : — " The county 
for which I serve is Cheshire, which is a County Pala- 
tine, and we have two judges peculiarly assigned us by 
his Majesty : our puisne judge I have nothing to say 
against him, for he is a very honest man for aught I 
know ; but I cannot be silent as to our chief justice, and 
I will name him, because what I have to say will appear 
more probable : his name is Sir George Jeffreys, who I 
must say behaved himself more like a jack-pudding, 
than with that gravity which beseems a judge : he was 
mighty witty upon the prisoners at the bar ; he was very 
full of his jokes upon people that came to give evidence, 
not suffering them to declare what they had to say in 
their own way and method, but would interrupt them, be- 
cause they behaved themselves with more gravity than he ; 
and in truth, the people were strangely perplexed when 
they were to give in their evidence ; but I do not insist 
upon this, nor upon the late hours he kept up and down 
our city : it's said he was every night drinking till two 
o'clock, or beyond that time, and that he went to his 
chamber drunk ; but this I have only by common fame, 
for I was not in his company : I bless God I am not a man 
6 



62 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



of his principle or behaviour : l but in the mornings he ap- 
peared with the symptoms of a man that over night had 
taken a large cup. But that which I have to say is the 
complaint of every man, especially of them who had any 
law-suits. Our chief justice has a very arbitrary power, 
in appointing the assize when he pleases ; and this man 
has strained it to the highest point : for whereas we were 
accustomed to have two assizes ; the first about April or 
May, the latter about September ; it was this year the 
middle (as I remember) of August before we had any 
assize ; and then he despatched business so well, that he 
left half the causes untried ; and to help the matter, has 
resolved that we shall have no more assizes this year." 

While George was thus climbing the slippery summits 
of ambition, his brethren were prospering at home, partly 
by their own merits, partly by the assistance of their 
eminent kinsman. His eldest brother, John, was high- 
sheriff of Denbighshire, in 1680 ; and James, another 
brother, preached the assize-sermon in the same year, 
when Sir George rode his first circuit as chief judge. 
Dr. James Jeffreys was of Jesus College, Oxford, and 
took his degrees thus; M.A. 1672, B.D. 1679, D.D. 
1683. Through the same influence he was installed a 
prebendary of Canterbury, Nov. 9, 1682 : he was canon 
of the ninth stall. Pennant tells us, that one brother 
was Dean of Rochester, (and his account must clearly 
be referred to James,) and that he died on the road to 
visit his brother, when under confinement in the Tower. 
But there has not been any dean of that name in Ro- 



1 This savours very much of "I thank God I am not as other men 
sre," &r. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 6S 



chester cathedral ; l and Dr. Jeffreys died on the 4th of 
September, 1689, some months after the chancellor's 
decease, which disproves the latter statement. His epi- 
taph is in Canterbury cathedral, as follows : — 

Sub hoc marmore deposits sunt reliquiae Jacobi Jefferies S. T. P. 
hujus ecclesiae canonici, qui obiit 4 Septembris, Anno Domini 1689. 
^Etatis suae 40. 

Thomas, another brother, was knighted at Windsor 
Castle, July 11, 1680. He was a knight of Alcantara, 3 
and resided much among the Spaniards, who greatly ad- 
mired his ancestry, 3 as consul at Alicant and Madrid. 
He had so far conciliated the esteem of the Spanish mi- 
nistry, as to be recommended for Lord Lansdown's suc- 
cessor, as British envoy in Spain ; but this good fortune 
was arrested by the Revolution. When Pennant wrote, 
there was a full-length picture of him by Kneller in Ac- 
ton-house, with a long white cloak over his coat, and the 
cross of the order upon it. 

A storm, which had been gathering for some time, was 
now ready to burst on the heads of the court favourites ; 
and it fell not only upon the underlings of the ministry, 
but even on the ministers themselves : it was not likely, 
therefore, that upon any serious change in the posture of 
affairs, so noted a stickler for government as Sir George 
Jeffreys should escape. Ostensibly, the country party 

1 John Castilion, canon of Canterbury, was dean from 1676 till Oc- 
tober 21, 1688; and Simon Lowth from December, 1688, till the Revo- 
lution. 

2 A religious order, instituted in 1170 by Fernan Gorrns under tha 
pontificate of Alexander III. 

3 From Tudor Trevor, earl of Hereford, who was himself descendsd 
from Kynric ap Rhiwellon. 



G4 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



had taken great umbrage at a supposed attempt by the 
administration to stifle the plot ; and in pursuance of this, 
they instituted prosecutions against some persons, who, 
however honestly, had expressed themselves indiscreetly 
on the subject of that bugbear; and the King, with equal 
dissimulation, professed himself friendly to these pro- 
ceedings. But the plot was a mere pretence : the old 
arm of faction was not yet withered : the sprightly and 
gallant Duke of Monmouth had gained much upon the 
affections of the people ; and the Catholic religion, with 
the heir-presumptive as its patron, was unpopular, both 
within and without the walls of parliament. The exclu- 
sionists, by pressing their obnoxious bill, 1 were at length 
visited by the black rod ; and the parliament was pro- 
rogued from time to time, in spite of the earnest desire 
of the opposition to persecute the abhorrers, and to ques- 
tion the King's proclamation against tumultuous petition- 
ing. In order to compel King Charles to summon his 
parliament, the most violent addresses were got up ; and 
to counteract them, the court contrived that anti-peti- 
tions, expressing an abhorrence of this clamorous pro- 
ceeding, should be prepared and presented ; whence it 
was, that the term, abhorrcr, was derived. Money, how- 
ever, was wanting for the exigencies of the state, and 
thus the country faction at length prevailed : the session 
began, and a furious punishment was menaced against all 
those who had dared to violate the subject's liberty, by 
suppressing the voice of petition. After expelling two 

1 Although the bill was thrown out in the House of Peers by a con- 
siderable majority, the violence of the Commons continued ; and their 
desire to renew it, with their threat against such as had advised its re- 
jection, produced a prorogation. 



LIFE OF JEFFREY.?. 05 



of their members, and sending one to the Tower, they 
let loose their wrath against the recorder. He had fallen 
under their displeasure on more accounts than one; for 
not only had he opposed their petitioning to the utmost, 
but he had of late become quite lukewarm in the prose- 
cution of their beloved popish plot. When this " Genesis 
of abhorrences," as a certain writer styles it, began, the 
King sent for the mayor and aldermen in council, hoping 
that through their high authority an early check might 
be imposed on the hostile petitions which were coming 
forth. Jeffreys attended as their spokesman. The lord 
mayor was one of the factious ; and when it was required 
of him to punish the undue practices that were complained 
of, he answered, "that he knew of no course to suppress 
the inconvenience, for that the people took it as a right 
in them to petition upon any grievance they were sensi- 
ble of." Then Jeffreys, hoping to shift from the city to 
the council the responsibility of this check, moved, That 
his Majesty would issue a proclamation, prohibiting the 
framing and presenting any such petitions, and com- 
manding all magistrates to punish such as should act to 
the contrary. But few approved of this, as being too 
positive; and North, the chief justice, like a true states- 
man, took exception to the recorder's motion; and though 
he admitted that a proclamation on the subject matter 
might be beneficial, yet objected to one according to the 
proposed tenor as rather prejudicial, and capable of a 
captious construction. And then his lordship recom- 
mended the proclamation to be directed against seditious 
and tumultuous petitioning only; and that it should not 
by any means be supposed to condemn the undoubted 
privilege of the people. The King highly approved of 
6* 



QQ LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



this, and the recorder pleased neither party. Soon after- 
wards, he, nevertheless, got up an anti-petition in the 
name of the loyal citizens of London, in which they de- 
clared this method of petitioning to be the method of 
forty-one, 1 and likely to bring His Majesty to the block, 
as his father was brought; — all which doings they ab- 
horred. 

These were the offences which the House of Commons 
remembered against Sir George when they recovered 
their temporary power, and lifted up their voice of cen- 
sure; accordingly they proceeded to several votes against 
him, 'which are recorded in the journals, and are here 
copied. 

Sablati, 13° die Novemlris, 1680. 

Mr. Trenchard reports from the committee, to whom 
the petition of divers citizens of London against Sir 
George Jeffreys, recorder of the said city, was referred ; 
— that the said committee had taken the same into con- 
sideration, and had heard the evidence of the petitioners, 
and of the said Sir George Jeffreys, &c. 

"Besolved, That Sir George Jeffreys, recorder of the 
city of London, by traducing and obstructing petitioning 
for the sitting of this Parliament, hath destroyed the 
right of the subject. 

" Ordered, That an humble address be made to His 
Majesty, to remove Sir George Jeffreys out of all public 
offices. 



1 Serjeant Maynard, who was a popular man, was whispering some- 
thing, not very pleasing, to Gadbury, a witness on Elizabeth Cellier's 
trial, when the man said, "Mr. Serjeant, I was none of the tribe of 
forty-one." 



LIFE OF JEFFREY?. 0*7 



" Ordered, That the members of this House, that serve 
for the City of London, do communicate the vote of this 
House relating to Sir George Jeffreys, together with their 
resolutions thereupon, to the court of aldermen for the 
said city." 

To this address the King replied, "that he would con- 
sider of it." 

Had this gentleman stood upon his right, and refused 
to give up the office of recorder, (for the principal object 
of the country party was to substitute Sir George Treby 
for him in the city of London) he had probably continued 
the " mouth-piece of the city," as long as he desired. The 
course which must have been pursued for the purpose of 
compelling him to deliver up the corporation writings, 
would have been by mandamus ; and the cause which the 
parties asking for it must have alleged, might probably 
have been held insufficient by the judges then in office ; but 
he, who had so long acted the terrorist towards others, was 
himself considerably alarmed upon this occasion, and, in 
the end, was imposed upon by a trick adopted by the ad- 
verse faction. He had a reprimand upon his knees at 
the bar of the House ; and on condition that he should 
remain unmolested for his crime of abhorring, surren- 
dered his situation quietly to that eminent lawyer, Sir 
George Treby, afterwards chief justice of the Common 
Pleas. Some discourse that was held out to him about 
taking heads off, probably hastened this pusillanimous de- 
cision. He certainly played a very weak part at this 
crisis, for he begged and importuned the King to allow 
the vacating of his place, which the monarch was not 
by any means willing to concede, on account of the in- 
fluence which the former had with the citizens, added to 



G8 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



liis fierce and intractable carriage towards his Majesty's 
enemies. He gained his point, however, at last, but lost 
his credit, for King Charles facetiously observed, " that 
he was not parliament-proof; "* and some pretend, that he 
was never afterwards held in esteem by that sovereign, 
for his timid behaviour ; and, indeed, Mr. North tells us, 
that Jeffreys was "none of the intrepids." However, 
Burnet says, that they [the House of Commons,] "fell 
on Sir George Jeffreys, a furious declaimer at the bar ; 
but that he was raised by that, as well as by this prose- 
cution : " and this is certainly true; for although he 
might have been under a cloud for a season, the sequel 
will show, that he soon regained his ground, and tri- 
umphed more surely than before. 

Some have said, that he lost his recordership by vote, 
but this is clearly a mistake ; and there is yet another 
account of this matter, which is as follows : — The King, 
having recovered from a very dangerous indisposition, 
was greeted on his going abroad by an address of con- 

1 King Charles seems to have been parliament-proof. He sold Dun- 
kirk to the French when he thought his Commons parsimonious; he de- 
manded a repeal of the triennial act; shut up the exchequer against the 
hankers without fear of being questioned for it; and when the House 
became clamorous and turbulent, he would very quietly send his black 
rod to tap at their door, and warn them all home. His natural sense 
was very strong and good; and it is probable that the little cultivation 
he allowed his mind was greatly assisted by the advice of such great 
men as Sir William Temple, of whom too much cannot be said in pa- 
negyric, and the calm, calculating, sure, lord-keeper, North. However, 
this monarch knew that he could not affront his parliament beyond a 
certain pitch, and therefore once facetiously observed to his brother 
James, who wanted him to do some extraordinary act, not warranted by 
the constitution, "Brother, I have no mind to go upon my travels again; 
you may, if you please." 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 69 



gratulation from the mayor and aldermen, upon which 
the recorder proposed that thej should wait upon the 
Duke of York, who had not long returned from Flanders, 
with a like courtesy. This motion not being relished, he 
stayed behind with his father-in-law to gain access to the 
Duke ; at which the city took offence, imagining (and in- 
deed not without some colour,) that he was espousing a 
cause not exactly coinciding with their interests ; and 
thence it was determined in the council-chamber, that he 
should be requested to deliver back the papers and wri- 
tings with which he had been intrusted as their officer, 
and so give up his place. This he did without delay. 

Both these relations may be correct ; for the latter 
only describes the feelings of the parliament expressed 
through the court at Guildhall ; and there is nothing un- 
reasonable in the supposition that both parties, the city 
and the parliament, had been displeased with his manoeu- 
vring. However, he was not turned out in absolute dis- 
grace, as will appear from the proceedings on the subject, 
which we subjoin. 

Court of Aldermen, Nov. 23, 1680. 

" This day the members that serve for this city in par- 
liament came to the court, and brought down the votes 
and resolves of the honourable House of Commons, in re- 
ference to Sir George Jeffreys, that he will forthwith 
surrender to this court his said place of recorder. Or- 
dered, That Sir Henry Tulse, and Sir James Smyth, 
knights and aldermen, with the town clerk, do speedily 
acquaint Mr. Recorder herewith, and desire him to be 
present at the next court. 

" Ordered, That the town clerk deliver a copy of the 



'0 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



court's proceedings in reference to Sir George Jeffreys to 
Sir Robert Clayton, knt. and alderman, one of the city 
members, to be by him communicated to the House of 
Commons, if the same should be required." 

" On the second of December, Sir George Jeffreys, knt. 
serjeant-at-law, recorder of the city, here present', did 
freely surrender up unto the court his place of recorder, 
and all his right and interest therein ; of which surrender 
the court did accept and allow. George Treby, 1 of the 
Middle Temple, London, Esq., was elected the same day, 
and sworn in December 3d. At the same time, it having 
been noticed that the sum of <£200 remained unpaid, — 
which had been voted to Sir George Jeffreys on the 22& 
of October, for his good services performed to the city, 
it was ordered that Mr. Chamberlain do pay the same. 
And a committee was also appointed to take into consi- 
deration the great sums of money disbursed by the late 
recorder, in fitting up his dwelling-house in Alderman- 
bury, which he held of the city." 2 

1 Of Plympton, Devon. He entered himself a commoner of Exeter 
College in June, 1660, and afterwards became a fellow-commoner. He 
was of the Middle Temple, and sat for his native town in 1678 and 1679. 
In the beginning of October, 1683, he lost his recordership, on the burst- 
ing of the fanatical plot, but was restored to it oa the approach of the 
Prince of Orange, and again sat for Plympton. In the following March 
he became solicitor-general, and when Pollexfen was made chief of the 
Common Pleas, rose to be attorney. In 1692 Pollexfen died, and Sir 
George Treby was named for his successor. He died December 13, 1700. 
He was the author of several pamphlets which made a great noise at that 
time of day, and is supposed to have written the annotations in the mar- 
gin of Lord Chief Justice Dyer's Reports. 

2 Elkanah Settle, who composed a panegyric in verse upon Jeffreys, 
ascribes his removal from the recordership to the influence of Shaftes- 
bury. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 71 



The mob generally take part against a falling favour- 
ite, and this misfortune of Jeffreys afforded them great 
amusement ; for when the pope was burnt in effigy at 
Temple Bar, on Queen Elizabeth's birth-day, the wags of 
the day had a figure of a man set on horseback with his 
face to the tail, and a paper on his back, "I am an Ab- 
horrer." Indeed, he was no favourite with the populace 
either in this or the following reign, and he went shares 
with poor Sir Roger L'Estrange in the general odium. 
L'Estrange was burnt in effigy with the pope, 1 and Jef- 
freys with the devil. 

A curious circumstance happened about this time re- 
specting one Verdon, a Norfolk attorney, which is not 
unworthy of a place here by way of digression. A peti- 
tion had been presented to the House of Commons against 
this' man by the inhabitants of his county, for undue prac- 
tices in returning knights of the shire, and other misde- 
meanors ; 2 and an order was made that he should be sent 

' L'Estrange had given great offence by his ridicule of the popish plot 
in a narrative which he published in derision of Titus Oates's " Narra- 
tive." " There was a consult," says Sir Roger, " of three or four book- 
sellers over a bottle of wine, what subject a man might venture upon at 
that time, for a selling copy. One of the company was of opinion that 
a book of the fires would make a smart touch, and so they all agreed 
upon't, and propounded to get some of the King's witnesses' hands to it : 
naming first one, and then another, they came at length to a resolution, 
and pitcht upon Trap ad crucem, and the History of the Fires," &c. It 
was "A Narrative and Impartial Discovery of the Horrid Popish Plot, 
carry'd on for the Burning and Destroying of the Cities of London and 
Westminster, with their Suburbs, &c. And dedicated to the Surviving 
Citizens of London ruin'd by Fire," &c. 

a He once helped off a fellow attorney on a charge of murder by re- 
turning a favourable jury: and the consequence was, that his acquitted 
friend committed an assault on the persons who were sent to arrest him 
by order of the parliament upon this occasion — See the Journals of the 
House of Commons for 1680, p. 678. 



72 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



for in custody of the serjeant-at-arms. ButVerdon was 
not so easily taken ; he shifted about from place to place, 
and so eluded the search after him for some time, although 
he offered a composition in money for his fees, and agreed 
to surrender upon those terms; to which the sergeant 
replied, that he could not sell the justice of the House. 
However, after a fruitless attempt to reach him in Lon- 
don, the messengers went down to Norwich, and there he 
struggled and battled with them considerably ; he would 
neither mount nor dismount from his horse, but made the 
officers put him on and lift him off, while his clerks were 
taking notes all the time, and marking the various as- 
saults, for each of which the attorney proposed to bring 
a distinct action of battery. But as soon as they had 
come on about midway between London and Norwich, 
the parliament was prorogued, and Verdon said, that 'the 
subsequent custody was a false imprisonment, upon which 
he sued the parties in the Exchequer. William Williams, 
the speaker, who had signed the warrant, led for the de- 
fendants, and Jeffreys was employed for Verdon. Wil- 
liams alleged, that the men could not have known of the 
prorogation, and said much to excuse them upon that 
ground. Verdon then stepped forth, and said, "My lord, 
if Sir William Williams will here own his hand to the 
warrant, I will straight discharge these men." Roger 
North, who tells this story, then adds, that "Jeffreys was 
so highly pleased with this gasconade of his client, that 
he loved him ever after, of which Verdon felt the good 
effects, when his learned counsel came that circuit as chief 
justice; for although many complaints were intended 
against him, and such as were thought well enough 
grounded, yet he came off scot-free." Jeffreys hated 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 73 



Williams, because he had received a censure on his knees 
at the bar of the House from that gentleman, when speak- 
er, and as North says, "they were both Welshmen;" 1 so 
that when the former got uppermost, he prosecuted his 
quondam lecturer. 



1 Sir George seemed not to be ashamed of his country, or its peculia- 
rities. He was indulging himself one day with a very common amuse- 
ment, that of bullying a witness, and thus addressed him : " Look thee, 
if thou canst not comprehend what I mean, I will repeat it again, for 
thou shalt see what countryman I am, by my telling my story over 
twice: therefore I ask thee once again." 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Situation and new prospects of Jeffreys— He refuses to admit dissenters 
on the grand jury— Trial of Fitzharris— Colledge, the joiner, tried — 
Witticisms of Jeffreys— Election of the city sheriffs— Dudley North 
elected— Account of Sir Edmund Sanders — Judge Jones— The quo 
warranto judgment — Trial of Pilkington for a riot — Anecdote of Dare 
the petitioner — Some account of Sir Thomas Bludworth, and the fire 
of London — The Rye-house Plot — Sir Francis Pemberton — Conduct 
of Jeffreys on the Trial of Lord William Russel. 

For this sudden veering of the compass Jeffreys was 
but ill prepared; he had submitted to the disgrace of 
apostacy with the full expectation of a reward so secure 
and permanent as to make him ample amends. Now, on 
a sudden, he was driven forth an outcast from the city 
magistracy, publicly denounced by the Commons, and 
jeered at by his royal master for a want of common re- 
solution. To secure his own fortunes, let the means or 
consequences be as they might, was the utmost he had 
any care for, but the difficulty lay in discerning the best 
political game for accomplishing those ends. He was, 
indeed, possessed of a valuable judgeship, and was in- 
vested with very high honour amongst his coifed brother- 
hood ; but the court interest had sunk to an ebb so low, 
as to give a probable earnest of some instant and fatal 
revolution in the state. Then it was that he bethought 
him of his old companions, many of whom were career- 
ing with the triumphant party ; a seat in parliament, and 
a clamorous disapprobation of all government measures, 
seemed to him the best things in prospect; nothing re- 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 75 



mained but to seek a reconciliation; and to obtain this, 
lie would probably have stooped to any sacrifice. But 
his conduct had been so despicable, that audacious as he 
was, there were many whom he could not approach with 
any degree of assurance; and from those to whom he ven- 
tured the hint, (for it seems he actually made some en- 
deavours,) he met with a reception so unfavourable, as to 
determine him at once to live and die under the royal 
banner. 

And it happened, that notwithstanding all these rebuffs, 
he maintained a considerable influence both at court and 
in the city; so that when the Southwark petition was 
carried up in the next year to Hampton Court, he was 
invited to dinner by the King with his wife's father, Sir 
Thomas Bludworth, and was particularly noticed; whilst 
the lord mayor, aldermen, and commons were sent away 
with a reprimand. He continued also an active member 
of the lieutenancy, and appeared among them girded with 
his sword; and, on the whole, we may say of him, as Wal- 
ler did of the Protestant faith in the reign of James the 
Second, " This falling church has got a trick of rising 
again." 

Having had a little time for consideration, Jeffreys be- 
thought himself how to avenge his disgrace upon those 
who had been instrumental in annoying him, and he, at 
last, fixed upon the dissenters as the party who had in- 
fluenced the court of aldermen to turn him out ; and, ever 
after, he directed his especial malice against these per- 
sons. It was no slight pleasure to him, for the gratifica- 
tion of this hostility, to find himself appointed chairman 
of Hickes's-hall, though he lost some portion of his prac- 
tice through it ; and here he soon embroiled himself with 



76 LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 



his new enemies. He would allow no dissenters to serve 
on the grand jury, and ordered the under-sheriff to re- 
turn a new panel, purged of the sectarians ; but this was 
refused, on which he ordered the sheriffs to attend on him 
the next day. However, instead of them, came the re- 
corder, fraught with the opinion of the court of aldermen, 
that the privilege of the city exempted the sheriffs from 
coming to Hickes's-hall, and that the service of the un- 
der-sheriff was sufficient. On this the court fined the 
sheriff <£100, and declared, that the judges should be 
made acquainted with the matter. Accordingly, the dis- 
cussion was renewed before ten judges of the Old Bailey, 
where the sheriffs attended; and after considerable de- 
mur, they consented to reform the panel. 

Lucky, indeed, was it for our King's Serjeant, that he 
had not succeeded in appeasing the offended brotherhood 
of his early days: the sense of shame or conquering 
dread, which assailed him when he thought of them, most 
indisputably averted the wreck of his fortunes. The 
King, actuated by wise advice, had the firmness to re- 
trench his expenses, and dispense with his unruly parlia- 
ment ; and the government rallied irresistibly against its 
opposers, and was soon in a condition to crush them ut- 
terly. Fitzharris, an Irish gentleman, who had thrown 
himself in an odd way at the mercy of some eaves-drop- 
pers, was the first on whom, the ministers retaliated the 
insults which had been offered them ; he was ostensibly 
sacrificed to the old popish. plot mania, but, in truth, fell 
a victim to the furious jealousy which raged between the 
crown and the parliament. Jeffreys roared prodigiously 
against this unfortunate and indiscreet spy ; he insisted 
that the prisoner had condemned himself by disparaging 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 77 

his own witnesses; and he further told the jury, that if 
they acquitted Fitzharris, they could neither have respect 
to their credit, nor to their consciences. He delivered, 
moreover, a speech of extraordinary ability ; and one who 
wrote shortly after those days, has not scrupled to affirm 
that this rhetoric weighed mainly with the jury, who were 
in some doubt as to their verdict. However, the court 
before whom he was tried, the chief of whom 1 was a mo- 
derate man, highly approved of the decision ; and the go- 
vernment no less exulted in ridding themselves of one 
who had been a rallying post for faction: yet, notwith- 
standing all this, Fitzharris died a martyr to violence 
and prejudice, for he was clearly in the Duchess of Ports- 
mouth's confidence, although it pleased her Grace to for- 
get every thing of the kind in a moment of political con. 
venience; and those were days in which a culprit's wit- 
nesses could not be subjected to the test of an oath. The 
Serjeant, elated by success, rather increased in his rough- 
ness at the trial of the titular archbishop, Plunket ; so 
that Sawyer, attorney-general, was obliged to interfere, 
and to beg that the prisoner might have fair play to ask 
his questions. He gave the court another speech ; at the 
end of which, as usual, he held that all the treasons were 
punctually and precisely proved. But it was in the fol- 
lowing August, at the trial of Colledge, the London join- 
er, that he suffered his temper to break fully forth; not 
only essaying to overrule the opinion of the court, but 
scattering abroad his untimely jests even against the ac- 
cused, and thus giving somewhat of a foretaste of the 
chief justice who was to come. In fact, this was the first 

' Sir Francis Pemberton. 

.7* 



78 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



trial of the court party, to signalize their triumph over 
those of the country ; and Jeffreys could hardly contain 
himself for joy to think that his ship had righted again, 
and that he should sail on now with all his colours flying. 
lie fell first on North, who was the presiding judge, and 
who felt disposed to let the prisoner have some papers 
which had been taken from him, to which the advocate 
objected, till the King's counsel had seen them: — "Look 
you, brother!" says the chief, "we will have nothing of 
heat till the trial be over : when that is over, if there be 
any thing that requires our examination, it will be pro- 
per for us to enter into the consideration of it ; but in 
the mean time, what hurt is there, if the papers be put 
into some trusty hands, that the prisoner may make the 
best use of them he can, and yet they remain ready to 
be produced on occasion?" — Serj. Jeffreys. "With sub- 
mission, my lord, that is assigning him counsel with a 
witness." And, at length, the papers were retained by 
the court on the ground of their being scandalous. Sir 
George could hardly allow the attorney-general and the 
other leading counsel to examine the crown witnesses, so 
anxious was he to gain a conviction ; but the prisoner's 
trade of a carpenter afforded him excellent opportunities 
of showing his wit. A libel, called Rary-Show, was pro- 
duced with cuts: "I suppose 'tis his own cutting," said 
Jeffreys. — Again Jeffreys, "Do you know that he had 
any pistols in his holsters at Oxford?" — Dugdale, "Yes, 
he had." — Jeffreys, "I think a chisel might have been 
more proper for a joiner." 

Sometimes he would affect great coolness. — Colledge, 
"Is it probable I should talk to an Irishman who does 
not understand sense?" — Haynes, "It is better to be an 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 79 



honest Irishman than an English rogue." — Jeffreys (to 
Haynes, the witness,) "He does it but to put you in a 
heat; don't be passionate with him." Colledge's mother- 
in-law came forward to say, that he always carried him- 
self like a gentleman, and scorned any thing unhandsome. 
"Pray, how came you by this witness?" said Jeffreys; 
"have you any more of them?" However, some of the 
witnesses indulged themselves with a sharp hit upon the 
counsel, and upon his sorest part, and he would yet give 
them their answer in turn. 1 One John Lun was called 
to throw a discredit upon a crown witness, and he, of 
course, encountered Jeffreys, to whom the attorney and 
solicitor-general seemed to have left all the rough work. 
— Lun, " I will take the sacrament upon it, what I say 
is true." — Mr. S. Jeff. "We know you, Mr. Lun; we 
only ask questions about you, that the jury may know 
you too as well as we. We remember what you once swore 
about an army." Colledge was frightened at this, for he 
said, "I don't know him," meaning the witness. — Mr. 
Lun, "I don't come here to give evidence of any thing 
but the truth ; I was never upon my knees before the par- 
liament for anything:" — Jeffreys, " Nor I neither for 
much; but yet — once you were, when you cried-, Scatter 
them, good Lord!" Now this Lun had been a drawer at 
the Devil Tavern, and was "gifted like an army saint." 
He was once heard praying against the cavaliers, and 
was crying out, Scatter 'em, scatter 'em; which gained 

' This is not unlike Johnson's description of Foote: 
Bosivell — "Sir, the ostler would have answered him; would have 
given him as good as he brought, as the saying is." 

Johnson — " Yes, sir, and Foote would have answered the ostler." 
BosweWs Johnson, 4to. vol. ii. p. 491. 



80 LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 



him the nickname of Scatter 'em. The next rub came 
from Titus Oates, who appeared for Colledge, to show 
subornation against the Protestants. The doctor was ap- 
pealing to Sir George as to his knowledge of Alderman 
Wilcox. The very name of an alderman could not have 
failed to have tickled the lawyer rather unpleasantly; 
and so he said, " Sir George Jeffreys does not intend to 
be an evidence, I assure you." — Dr. Oates, "I do not 
desire Sir George Jeffreys to be an evidence for me ; I 
had credit in parliaments, and Sir George had disgrace 
in one of them." — Mr. Serjeant, "Your servant, doctor; 
you are a witty man and a philosopher." 1 A day of re- 
tribution was at hand for Oates, and Jeffreys was his 
judge. 

It is not a little amusing to read the account of Jef- 
freys setting the evidence of such men as Oates and Dug- 
dale against each other ; though we regard with very dif- 
ferent feelings the perpetual comparison which he was 
making before the jury between the testimony of Dugdale, 
as being on oath, and so highly credible, and that of 
Oates, unprotected by such sanction, and so worth no- 
thing. Nevertheless, he showed even on this trial a 
strong partiality for the strict rules of evidence ; for when 
the witness Everard was discoursing of what one Justice 

1 The wit of this word "philosopher " here may be explained by look- 
ing to a subsequent cross-examination of Oates's brother. Wilcox gave 
Dr. Oates a dinner, where were several persons; and Colledge had exa- 
mined the brother, who was one of the company, to show that no trea- 
sonable words had been uttered there. Serj. Jeffreys, " Hark you, sir, 
were there no disputations in divinity ?"— Ans. " Not at all." — Jeff. 
"Nor of Philosophy?" — Ans. "No." — Jeff. "Why, pray, sir, did not 
I>r. Oates and Mr. Savage talk very pleasantly of two great questions 
in divinity — the being of God and the immortality of the soul V 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 81 



Warcup wanted him to swear, Jeffreys interrupted him, 
saying, "We have nothing to do with what you and Jus- 
tice Warcup talked of: for example's sake, my lord, let 
us have no discourses that concern third persons brought 
in here." He kept up his animosity against the prisoner 
throughout a very long trial ; and though Colledge was 
noted for his zeal against popery, the Serjeant, in summing 
up part of the evidence, (which he did with many canting 
expressions,) told the jury, that they would trip up the 
heels of all the evidence and discovery of the plot, unless 
they believed Dugdale, Smith, and Turbervile, the prin- 
cipal witnesses. The prisoner was convicted and exe- 
cuted, and died firmly in the Protestant faith. 

In the following November, Serjeant Jeffreys appeared 
against Lord Grey of Werk, who had deflowered the Lady 
Henrietta Berkeley; and, although he occasionally in- 
dulged in a slight stroke of satire, he behaved very much 
like a man of the world in this affair. However, when 
that lady came to deliver her testimony in favour of the 
noble defendant, the Serjeant could not help his accus- 
tomed slight upon witnesses against his own case ; and 
so, when he found that the court had overruled the at- 
torney-general's objection to her being sworn, he drily 
added, " Truly, my lord, we would prevent perjury if we 
could." 

And now we come to speak of the troubles which befell 
the city of London in 1682 and 1683, in consequence of 
the unconquerable predilection of the members of the 
common-hall for choosing their own sheriffs. In forward- 
ing their punishment, Jeffreys was a great political en- 
gine : he had been fortunate enough to bring two discom- 
fited adversaries within his grasp — the city and the dis- 



82 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



senters; and whatever were his good qualities (for such 
he certainly had,) forbearance and forgetfulness of af- 
fronts were never numbered amongst them. 

It had been a custom for the lord mayor to choose one 
sheriff, and for the commonalty to elect the other. At 
the Bridge-house feast, which was a few days before the 
24th of June, the day for electing sheriffs, the mayor 
used to drink out of a large gilt cup to some person, 
naming him, by the title of sheriff of London and Middle- 
sex for the year ensuing. If the favoured citizen were 
not there, the cup, being placed in the great coach, was 
carried in state to his house by the sword-bearer and 
other officers, and presented to him there: upon which 
he was saluted my lord mayor's sheriff, and shortly after 
summoned before the mayor and aldermen, when he either 
gave bond or fined. This drinking and fining was very 
often a well-concerted finesse for the benefit of the cor- 
poration; for if the party declined, the gilt cup went 
travelling again, and so continued, till some one would 
pledge, and hold; and this was called "going a birding 
for sheriffs." In 1641, the factious party having got the 
ascendency, my lord mayor's choice was set aside, and 
the livery selected both. Now the court being much 
vexed at this time with the ignoramus by which Shaftes- 
bury was let loose, and chagrined indeed by the want of 
pliability which the city had shown respecting the popish 
plot, by the petitioning assemblies, and the treatment of 
the Duke of York, — was determined to revive the old 
usage ; and having got a mayor, Sir John Moor, 1 who 



1 " Nor was it without cause that the news of his heing chosen mayor 
was entertained with so much joy and triumph at Holyrood housej for 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 83 



would drink, they cast their eyes around for a fitting 
sheriff to be drunk unto. After some delay, Jeffreys, 
who was at the bottom of all the transactions, hinted, 
that Dudley North, the chief justice's brother, a rich 
Turkey merchant, would be a creditable man for the 
ministers to pitch upon for a recommendation to the city. 
This was a good device on the part of Jeffreys ; for if the 
chief justice had objected to this nomination, he had pos- 
sibly embroiled himself with the King, and so made room 
for another ; and if he made no scruple, as it happened, 
then the crown was served equally well by this insinua- 
tion. Sir John drank to Mr. North, and sent him the 
gilt cup in full parade, which the merchant boldly ac- 
cepted, amidst all the fury and menaces of the opposite 
faction, who held out the penalties of hanging, parlia- 
ment, beating brains out, and even of something worse 
after death, against any one who should dare stand against 
their will. And for a time they so far gained the day, 
that North was the victim of pamphleteers and tongues 
from every quarter: "the whole country rang with his 
name; and wherever he went, people started out of the 
way, and cried out, 'That's he!'" However, after a 
conversation or two with his brother, the judge, who 
promised to advance him 1000Z. towards making up his 
account, he cared very little for the clamours which flew 



some behind the curtain had undoubtedly laid the project of serving them- 
selves in this, if not other considerable matters, by him." — Modest In- 
quiry concerning the election of Sheriffs of London, 1682. However, 
when Moor came to be examined in parliament after the Revolution, he 
denied that any one had instructed him; and Dudley North said the 
same thing, though Secretary Jenkins was a likely man to have done 
something of that kind. 



84 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



about his ears, for he was a jolly, red-faced, good-humoured 
man; and, as Roger North says, "he thought no more 
of the adventure or consequence, than he did in shifting 
a bale of cloth." At last came "the tug of war;" the 
24th of June arrived, and brought with it, as far as the 
factions were concerned, "A Midsummer Day's Dream." 
The chief justice North went to Sir George Jeffreys, 
(who, though not a chief actor, was present at the hust- 
ings,) and stayed at his house during the election; for Sir 
George was working all his interest to promote the new 
sheriff; and the presence of these great men might, be- 
sides, assist the spirits of the chief magistrate, lest they 
should droop in the tumult. On the other'side went forth 
the Lord Grey of Werk, and the green ribbon council, 1 
and the floor of the Guildhall was soon crowded. After 
an immensity of wrangling, the livery refused to confirm 
North's appointment; 2 on which a warm discussion arose, 
which ended in a long argument by counsel, whether the 
hall could be dissolved. The attorney-general was flat 



1 Many clubs and associations were formed at this time in different 
quarters of the city. The most celebrated was the green ribbon club, 
which consisted of two hundred persons devoted to opposition and the 
bill of exclusion. Sir Robert Payton, who incurred the censure of the 
House of Commons for having made his peace with the duke of York, 
being questioned by the House, informed th§m that the Duke of York 
said to him, "You have been against me, Sir Robert; you was a member 
of the green ribbon club." — Somerville's Political Trans actions , p. 101, 
and lb. p. 10. 

■ "The dissenters, who were much the greater number, instead of 
holding up hands, screwed their faces into numberless variety of No's, 
in such a sour way, and with so much noise, that any one would have 
thought all of them had, in the same instant of time, been possessed with 
some malign spirit that convulsed their visages in that manner." — North's 
Examcn, p. 005. 



LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 85 



to the point, that the mayor was head of the corporation, 
and so, that nothing could be done without him: on which 
he plucked up a remarkable spirit, rose unexpectedly, and 
bade the officer take up the sword, saying, as he went 
off, "If I die, I die." He then took his seat upon the 
hustings, and directed Crispe, the common Serjeant, to 
adjourn the hall. Sir John Moor intended that the case 
should have been argued by counsel, and he fixed on Mr. 
Sanders (afterwards the chief justice,) together with Sir 
George Jeffreys, for that purpose; but "upon receiving a 
letter from a certain minister, his lordship came down, 
and dismissed the court." 1 

In the end, the court prevailed; and North, with one 
Sir Peter Rich, a citizen-courtier, were sworn for the en- 
suing year. But Jeffreys, although not permitted to in- 
terfere with these proceedings on account of his depriva- 
tion, was not without full employment in this affair soon 
afterwards. For, doubting perhaps the firmness of the 
crown, the old sheriffs, Pilkington and Shute, were so 
indiscreet as to set up a poll in the common-hall after 
the adjournment; for which, on information and oath 
made, they were forthwith arrested, and obliged to put in 
bail, and in the following May took their trial with seve- 
ral others for a riot. 

Upon this occasion the serjeant appeared in all his 
glory. There was some objection in the outset as to 
swearing the jury ; in the legal phrase, it was attempted 
to challenge the array. "Pray, gentlemen," said the 
good-natured chief justice Sanders, "don't put these 

1 See "The Rights of the City further unfolded, and the manifold Mis- 
carriages of my Lord Mayor, &c. displayed and laid open," 1682. 



86 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 

things upon me: you would not have done this before 
another judge; you would not have done it if Sir Mat- 
thew Hale had been here. This is only to tickle the 
people." And Jeffreys exclaimed, when the challenge 
was read, "Here's a tale of a tub, indeed!" 

This Sir Edmund Sanders was a most remarkable cha- 
racter: he was derived from the meanest origin, a mere 
beggar-boy, and "courted the attorneys' clerks for 
scraps." But he contrived to make himself in due time 
a very expert special pleader; and being conversant with 
all the traps and snares of the law, very often baffled his 
superiors, (Maynard 1 among the rest,) and had certain 



1 This very considerable man was the eldest son of Alexander Maynard, 
Esq. of Tavistock, Devon, and was born about 1602. At the age of six- 
teen he was entered of Exeter College, Oxford ; and, previous to his taking 
the degree of A. B., was admitted a student of the Middle Temple. He 
was a friend of Mr. Attorney Noy, and was contemporary with Selden, 
Rolle, and other great lawyers of the day, whose custom was to converse 
very unreservedly together, and thus cement their various stocks of 
knowledge. Maynard soon had great practice, which he managed to re- 
tain to the end of his forensic career : for whether there was a monarchy 
or a commonwealth, he equally prospered ; and was concerned in the 
state persecutions which distinguish the reign of the second Charles. His 
knowledge of law was exquisite, and Jeffreys was often glad to avail 
himself of a hint from the old serjeant, which he would greedily swallow, 
and crow over the other counsel with the new information he had gained. 
One day, however, he unguardedly broke loose upon his instructor, and 
told Maynard, who was then quite mellow with age, that he had grown 
so old as to forget the law. " 'Tis true, Sir George, I have forgotten 
more law than ever you knew," was the punishing retort. In 1640, this 
lawyer sat for Totness, and soon after was employed against the Earl of 
Strafford and Archbishop Laud. In 1647, he was so eminent as to get 
700/. in one circuit: "more," says Whitelock, "than was ever got be- 
fore in that way:" and in 1653, the Protector made him his serjeant. 
There were some points, however, which this stout advocate would not 
submit to yield ; and he so conducted himself in the famous case of Cony s 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 87 



business which none but himself could do. Hale had no 
great fancy for him, for he was quite besotted with ale 
and brandy ; so much so, that in summer his brethren of 
the bar suffered a kind of martyrdom in being obliged to 
stand near him, for intemperance had given him rather 
an unwholesome carcass. However, he passed off all 
their grumbling with a jest, and used to be so merry and 
facetious, and withal so loyal, that he had no enemies ; 
and having had the settlement of the pleadings in the 
great quo warranto case against the city, (for he was the 
government devil 1 of those times,) came quietly upon the 
cushion of the King's Bench, where his science soon re- 
conciled the lawyers to him. 

We return to Pilkington's affair, where Sir George was 
exercising his grossilretes in perfect freedom. The counsel 

(who was imprisoned by Cromwell without process of law, for refusing 
to pay taxes,) as to be sent to the Tower, from whence, however, he 
6oon got out by submission. At the Restoration he was fox enough to 
be made Serjeant; and very soon after, King's serjeant, with the honour 
of knighthood, at which time he was appointed a judge,* but made his 
excuses, probably because that post was held only during the King's 
pleasure. In 1661, he was returned for Beeralston, Devon, and sat 
throughout the two reigns in the House of Commons. He was a mem- 
ber of the Convention, and was very vigorous and able in managing the 
conference between the Lords and Commons. At the age of 87, he was 
promoted to be first commissioner of the great seal, and the year after 
was chosen member for Plymouth, but resigned his seat in Chancery 
soon afterwards. He died at Gunnersbury, near Ealing, on the 9th of 
October, 1690, and was buried in the church there. Every one knows 
his celebrated reply to King William, who told him that he had outlived 
all the men of the law in his time. "He had like to have outlived the 
law itself," he answered, " if his highness had not come over." 
1 An eminent counsel who settles pleadings for government. 



* This refutes what is somewhere sneeringly said, that Maynurd contrived to be mads 
King'g serjeant at the Restoration, but could get no further. 



Sb LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



for the defendants were pressing their challenge: "Pray 
tell me, Robin Hood upon Greendale stood," quoth the 
seijeant, "therefore you must not demur." And in the 
course of the trial he rose into a towering passion, re- 
buked the advocates on the other side with considerable 
violence, and, in fact, carried the verdict by storm. He 
was the more annoyed, because of the frequent allusions 
which were made to his having held office in the city, and 
he himself was obliged incidentally to mention circum- 
stances which had happened in his time there. Never- 
theless he evinced great acumen in fixing the guilt of this 
riot on the respective prisoners whom he found he could 
convict ; and there was, indeed, some need of his bluster- 
ing amidst the din and clamour which disturbed the court 
during the trial. 

And now he was able to requite some of his enemies ; 
for in estimating the amount of fines, and the abilities of 
the defendants to pay them, recourse was had to his ad- 
vice, which he so gave as to bring down a heavy penalty 
upon their heads. This judgment was reversed in par- 
liament on the coming in of King William. Soon after- 
wards, it fell to the lot of Sir Patience Ward to be tried 
for perjury; in which inquiry Jeffreys was concerned, but 
exhibited nothing remarkable, if we except the precision 
with which he detected the inaccuracy of some short- 
hand notes. 

Yet his most signal victory over the city partisans was 
certainly the quo warranto judgment. Secretly he had 
urged this measure as a punishment for the perpetual re- 
bellion which the citizens had been waging against the 
ministry; and he succeeded not only in overturning their 
privileges, but in reducing them to beg for favour at his 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 89 



hands. The same man had complimented the King and 
the Duke of York on the removal of a similar proceeding 
in 1680 ; but he was not at that time an ex-recorder. 

This pulling down of so great a charter as that of the 
Londoners was a bright example for one so fond of power 
and terror as Sir George Jeffreys : so that as soon as he 
became chief justice, he went the northern circuit in the 
plenitude of authority to save or annul the corporate 
privileges of those parts at his pleasure : 

Diruit, aedificat, mutat. 

There was in truth a northern, as well as a western 
campaign. Having plotted, that t jtJie King should ( - give 
him some token of acceptance iij/r-espect ©f tft'ese services, 
on the morning of his expedition he had a ring fresh from 
the royal finger. And so he went forth, a mighty legate, 
while all the charters, "like the walls of Jericho," 1 fell 
down at his feet; and he returned "laden with surren- 
ders, the spoils of towns." This ring was called the 
blood- stone ; and when the King gave it, he is reported 
to have said, that now the judge was going his circuit, 
" as the weather was hot, he had better not drink too 
much." 

It is well known, that Judge Jones gave the opinion 
of the court upon the quo warranto; and it is probable, 
that he was rewarded with the chief seat in the Common 
Pleas for this eminent service. Jones was of Welsh ex- 
traction, and was brought up at Shrewsbury free-school. 
Like his countrymen, he was given to occasional heats; 
and these were shown, says the author of the Examen, 



North's Examen, 4to. p. 606. 

8* 



90 ' LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



"in a rubor of countenance set off by his gray hairs." He 
was the judge who punished the famous Mr. Dare for 
seditious words. It is a well-known story, that this Dare 
presented one of the violent petitions to the King, and 
that when his Majesty asked him, how he dared present 
it, " Sir," said the man, "my name is Dare." However, 
Jones would have been supplanted if Sir George might 
have had his will, for it seems that he pressed very hard 
for the place, and it might have been only a promise that 
he should be the next King's Bench premier that quieted 
him, particularly as Sanders was ill, and the place was 
one of greater power, though indeed, at that tim6, of less 
emolument. This was a second effort to outstrip another, 
though not so successful as the ejectment of poor Sir Job 
Charlton. 

Sir John Reresby tells us, 1 that, when the chief justice 
Jones 2 was dispensed with by James II. Mr. Jones, his 
son, said, that his father had observed to the King, that 
he was by no means sorry he was laid aside, old and worn 
out as he was in his service, but concerned that His Ma- 
jesty should expect such a construction of the law from 
him, as he could not honestly give ; and that none but 
indigent, ignorant, or ambitious men would give their 
judgment as he expected; and that to this His Majesty 
made answer, "It was necessary his judges should be all 
of one mind." Jones replied, "Twelve judges you may 
possibly find, sir, but hardly twelve lawyers." 



' Memoirs, p. 233. 

2 He was choleric, but, on the whole, a very tolerable judge for those 
times. The greatest stain upon his character seems to be the violence 
which he used towards the unhappy Mrs. Gaunt. He was made judge 
of the King's Bench, April 13, 1676, and chief justice of the Common 
Pleas, September 29, 1683. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 91 



" Sir Thomas Bludworth, the father of Lady Jeffreys, 
died about this time. He was sheriff in 1663, and lord 
mayor of London in 1666, and he represented the city 
from the restoration until the thirtieth year of Charles 
II. 's reign, the year of his daughter's marriage. Pepys 
falls very foul upon him in his Diary, repeatedly charac- 
terizing him as a weak and inefficient man ; for which 
some proof is certainly adduced. He suffered the im- 
pressment of some respectable persons who had not been 
accustomed to a sea-faring life, and neglected to give 
them the bounty money, which Mr. Pepys says, he was 
obliged to furnish from his own pocket. 1 The account 
which that journalist gives of Sir Thomas's pusillanimity 
during the great fire, is as follows: "At last, met my 
lord mayor in Canning street, like a man spent, with a 
handkercher about his neck. To the King's message, 2 
he cried, like a fainting woman, ' Lord ! what can I do ? 
I am spent : people will not obey me. I have been pull- 
ing down houses, but the fire overtakes us faster than 
we can do it.' That he needed no more soldiers; and 
that, for himself, he must go and refresh himself, having 
been up all night. So he left me, and I him," &c. 3 



1 Diary, vol. i. p. 425. 

2 That houses should be pulled down. 

3 Vol. i. p. 446. Pepys seems afterwards to have been on good terms 
with Jeffreys, as appears from a letter printed among the correspondence 
subjoined to the Diary : — 

Lord Chancellor Jeffreys to Mr. Pepys. 

Bulstrode, July ye 7th, 1687. 
My most honrd. Friend, 

The bearer, Capt. Wren, came to mee this evening, with a strong 
fancy thai a recommendation of myne might at least entitle him to your 



92 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



Something that came out on Rosewell's trial, which we 
shall mention by and by, seems to confirm this supineness 
of the lord mayor. A witness, named Smith,' stated that 
the prisoner had preached to this effect: — "There was a 
certain great man that lived at the upper end of Grace- 
church-street, about this time eighteen years agone; I 
name nobody, you all know him whom I mean. And 
there came a certain poor man to him ; he was not a poor 
man neither, but a carpenter by trade ; — -one that wrought 
for his living, a labouring man; and toldthat great man, 
if he would take his advice, he would tell him how to quench 
the fire; but he pish'd at it, and made, light of it, and 
would not take his advice. Which if it had not been for 
that great man, and the lord mayors arid sheriffs that 
have been since, — nor the fire at Wapping, nor the fire at 
Southwark, had gone so far, or come to what they did." 
Then said the chief justice, " There was a great man that 
lived at the end of Gracechurch-street ? who did him mean 
by that?" As if Jeffreys did not know that his own 
father-in-law lived there ! — Mr. Recorder. " He meant, 
we suppose, Sir Thomas Bludworth, that was lord mayor 
at the fire time." 

However, Dr. Freeman, the rector of St. Ann's, Alders- 
gate, who had the task of performing his funeral sermon, 
indulged in most lavish praise of the knight. " He had 

favourable reception : his civilities to my brother, and his relation to 
honest Will. Wren, (and you know who else,) emboldens me to offer my 
request on his behalfe. I hope he has served our Mr. well, and is capable 
of being an object of the King's favour in his request: however, I am 
sure I shall be excused for this impertinency, because I will gladly in 
my way embrace all opportunities wherein I may manifest myself to be 
what I here assure you I am, Sir, your most entirely 

Affectionate friend and servant, 

Jeffreys, C. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 93 



the unhappiness to live in an age that's full of uncharita- 
ble censures. He was an excellent father and husband, 
feared God and loved his church, and died without an ex- 
pression of discontent." The reverend doctor could not 
have said more if the mitre had been descending upon his 
head. 

There was another Sir Thomas, probably the son of the 
lord mayor, who, among others, strenuously opposed a 
bill for charging the chancellor's estates in Leicestershire, 
after his decease, with 14600Z., and interest, for the pay- 
ment of his debts. By calling in the assistance of coun- 
sel, the property was saved to the heir, the bill being lost. 

The Rye-house Plot, a real substantial conspiracy, was 
now discovered, in which many persons of high blood were 
deeply implicated; and we should not do justice to the 
character of Jeffreys were we to pass over the details of 
it in silence. The king's counsel were on the alert, and 
Sir George had precedence next to the attorney-general, 
(Sawyer,) and the solicitor, Mr. Finch. 1 The judge was 

1 Mr. Finch was the second son of Heneage, Earl of Nottingham, Lord 
High Chancellor of England. He was sent to Christ Church at the age 
of fifteen, in 1664, and went thence without a degree to the Inner Tem- 
ple. At the age of twenty-nine, being then solicitor-general, he was 
chosen member for Oxford University, which honourable trust he held 
for many years. Sir Francis Winnington having displeased the ministry, 
Finch took the place of solicitor-general in the room of that lawyer in 
1678, but was obliged, in his turn, to give way in 1686 to Povvis. In 
1685 he was returned for Guildford. He was one of the counsel for the 
seven bishops in 1688, and in the reign of Queen Anne was created a 
peer, with the title of Baron Guernsey. George the First made him 
Earl of Aylesford, and in 1714 he was constituted chancellor of the duchy 
of Lancaster, which office he held only two years, and died in 1719, three 
years after he had resigned. He is supposed to have written some pam- 
phlets on the Rye-house Plot, and the qtio warranto against the city of 
London. 



94 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



Pembcrton, who had been removed to the Common Pleas, 
a very self-sufficient, but acute lawyer, whose bias was not 
how he should please the one party or the other, but how 
he might best administer to his own fancy and opinion. 
He used to boast that in making law he had outdone, kings, 
lords, and commons. He had not been of Sir Matthew 
Hale's school as to morals, for he began to practise in 
jail, after he had spent all his money, and there made 
himself so busy, that he came out, sleek and sharp with 
his gains. This is a specimen of his judicial opinion, after 
summing up the evidence in a case of treason : " Look you, 
gentlemen of the jury, you hear a plain case of a barbar- 
ous murder designed upon the King, one of the horridest 
treasons that hath been heard of in the world ; — to have 
shot the King and the Duke of York in their coaches as 
they were coming upon the road. You have had full evi- 
dence of this man's being one of them, and, therefore, I 
am of opinion, that you must find him guilty." And so 
the jury found him guilty. It is said that this judge was 
removed for taking bribes, but Burnet attributes his 
quietus to the leniency which he showed Lord Russel. 

After Walcot and Hone had been convicted, Lord Wil- 
liam Russel came before the court; and however careful 
Jeffreys might have been to avoid irregular evidence on 
former trials, it seemed, upon this, as though he were 
endeavouring to establish the fullest doctrine of hearsay. 
Thus, when he asked Sheppard whether he remembered 
any writings or papers read; the witness said, "None 
that I saw." — "Or that you heard of?" continued the 
Serjeant. And, indeed, the chief justice was compelled 
to interfere, with a declaration, that a great part of the 
evidence was such as the chief witness, Lord Howard, 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 95 



had heard from others ; observing, at the same time, that 
the prisoner should not be affected by it, while Jeffreys 
■was assuming the whole of this fallacious testimony for 
sworn facts. • - 

The most pointed question put during the whole business 
was by the shrewd Serjeant, who had sense enough to 
perceive that the case was mainly deficient, for want of 
clear proof that Lord Russel had assented to the plans of 
the conspirators : wherefore it was, that he asked very 
earnestly of the Lord Howard this : "But he did con- 
sent?" — Lord Howard. "We did not put it to the vote, 
but it went without contradiction; and I took it, that all 
those gave their consent." The prisoner had been in the 
habit of associating with the persons who were said to 
have formed a treasonable council on this occasion, and 
so far the evidence was against him ; but it was indispen- 
sable to a just conviction that he should have participated 
in some overt act; and had not Pemberton, in the con- 
clusion of this summing up, fallen upon the design to 
seize the King's guards, which he interpreted as a design 
to seize the person of the King, the matter had gone 
lame indeed to the jury. Nevertheless, Jeffreys mani- 
fested a bravado which must have been perfectly astonish- 
ing ; he told the jury that the King's counsel had raked 
no jails for their witnesses ; that it was not likely that 
two men should damn their own souls to take away the 
prisoner's life ; that the religion of the country ought to 
be preserved ; that they should not forget the horrid 
murder of that pious prince, King Charles the First ; and 
that they should not be corrupted by the greatness of any 
man. An anonymous writer 1 tells us, that this speech had 



The Bloody Assizes, p. 10. 



96 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 

great influence on the jury, and that it was delivered from 
a pique against the nobleman accused, because he had 
been in parliament when the orator was brought down 
upon his knees there: and there may be some colour for 
this, since the address of the judge must be considered as 
containing an intimation that the jury might acquit, if 
they dared. 

Sanders, the chief justice, was now dead by apoplexy; 
an admirable lawyer, and one who has left behind him a 
very bible for special pleaders ; but a man of careless 
morals, and a bigot to the ale-cask. In his room came 
Sir George Jeffreys, who was made on the 29th of Sep- 
tember, 1683, and soon afterwards sworn of the privy 
council. 1 



1 Somerville says, that he was first a puisne judge; but this is incor- 
rect: Pemberton had been a puisne before his elevation. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. . 97 



CHAPTER V. 

Sir George Jeffreys appointed lord chief justice of the King's Bench — 
The trial of Algernon Sidney — Points of law overruled by the judge — 
Intrepid and talented defence made by Sidney — Exasperation of the 
chief justice — Bishop Burnet's invective against Jeffreys — Character 
of him by North — Wit of a gray-beard directed against the judge — 
Williams, the speaker of the Commons, fined — Bickering between the 
chief justice and Mr. Ward — His severity in restraints upon counsel — 
His treatment of unwilling witnesses — He is summoned to be a mem- 
ber of the cabinet — The Lord Keeper Guilford's uneasiness in having 
him for a colleague — He addresses the King — Lord Guilford resists 
the chief justice's intercession — Jeffreys decidedly a Protestant — Trial 
of Mr. Rosewell— Generous application of Sir John Talbot to the King 
for Rosewell's pardon — Contests of the Chief justice and Lord Guil- 
ford — Anecdotes — Death of Charles II. — Monmouth and the liberal 
party— Jeffreys' elevation to the peerage — Titus Oates tried for per- 
jury — His sentence — Sir Bartholomew Shower — Legal acquirements 
of Jeffreys discussed — East India monopoly — Lady Ivy's case — Ri- 
chard Baxter, the non-conformist — Occasional forbearance of Judge 
Jeffreys. 

This promotion, it maybe well imagined, could hardly 
be denied to Jeffreys ; always busy in the intrigues and 
politics of the court, from a mere adventurer in state 
manoeuvres, he at length became a chief engine in work- 
ing them, and in the course of a few months he was ad- 
mitted into the cabinet. There hardly needs any specu- 
lation as to the immediate cause of this elevation, when 
we consider the immensity of service which he had ren- 
dered the crown ; the abundance of convictions he had 
procured; the unhesitating and devoted servility which 
he had displayed : yet it has been said, that his promise 
9 



98 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



to bail the popish lords helped materially to lift him up, 
that he showed much irresolution and deceitfulness about 
the matter, and, in the writer's own words, "failed at the 
touch." Certain it is, that Danby and the three others 
(for Stafford had suffered death) applied by petition to be 
bailed ; but their request was refused on the first applica- 
tion, although means were found afterwards to renew it 
with better success. 

There was now another victim to be sacrificed, and the 
ministers knew their new judge too well not to prefer him 
to Pemberton. It was one of Jeffreys' first judicial em- 
ployments to preside at the trial of that considerable man, 
Algernon Sidney. He began very fairly, for he openly 
reprobated the practice of whispering to the jury. "Let 
us have no remarks," said he, "but a fair trial, in God's 
name !" Sir John Dalrymple has observed in his Memoirs, 1 
that when the court would have persuaded Sidney to make 
a step in law, which he suspected was meant to hurt him, 
he said, " I desire you would not try me, and make me to 
run on dark and slippery places, I don't see my way ;" as 
though the judges wished to lead him into a trap. In 
justice to the chief of the court, who has been so much cen- 
sured for his deportment here, let us hear the caution 
which he distinctly gave the prisoner : — 

Lord Chief Justice. "Put in what plea you shall be 
advised; but if you put in a special plea, and Mr. Attor- 
ney demurs, you may have judgment of death, and by that 
you waive the fact." And again, "I am sure there is no 
gentleman of the long robe would put any such thing into 
your head. There was never any such thing done in capital 



Vol. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 99 



matters." The deep blemish upon this trial was, that the 
unfortunate colonel was found guilty upon inadmissible 
evidence, and a misrepresentation of the law by Jeffreys. 
A witness was suffered to give evidence that he knew 
Sidney's hand-writing, because he had seen him write 
once, and had met with endorsements upon bills in the same 
hand-writing; and another was allowed to speak from his 
experience of those endorsements only: and the judge 
would have mere writing to be an overt act of treason. 
Whereas, the men ought to have testified to Sidney's hand 
of their own knowledge, without consulting any other 
papers ; and the doctrine, scribere est agere, ought never 
to have been entertained in a court of justice, unless a 
publication were proved. 

But there is no colour for saying, as some have done, 
that the court refused to hear the prisoner, and give him 
the benefit of his defence. The report of the proceedings 
bears ample proof that great patience was shown, even 
by Jeffreys, and that he pointed out the advantage which 
would be gained by throwing a discredit on Lord How- 
ard's statement, who was a principal witness against the 
prisoner. It was not until questions were demanded by 
Sidney at their hands, that he was interrupted by the 
judges, and with regard to some suggestions by the chief, 
that irrelevant discourses should not be indulged ; — in 
this, our own enlightened day, if an accused person 
strays far from the point, it is rarely indeed that he will 
not be minded by the judge of the true course material 
to his defence. Sir John Dalrymple brings a further 
charge against the chief justice for endeavouring to in- 
snare the colonel into an avowal of the seditious writing 
attributed to him. We will give the passage from the 



100 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



State Trials at length, always premising that Jeffreys 
had such an overbearing tendency in his composition, as 
to reveal any artifice he might have been desirous of em- 
ploying by the very violence of his method. 

Mr. Att. Gen. — So much we shall make use of; if the 
colonel please to have any other part read to explain it, 
he may. — [Then the sheets were shown to Colonel Sid- 
ney.] 

Col. Sidney. — I do not know what to make of it; I 
can read it. 

Lord Ch. Just. — Ay, no doubt of it ! better than any 
man here. Fix on any part you have a mind to have 
read. 

Col. Sidney. — I do not know what to say to it, to 
read it in pieces thus. 

Lord Ch. Just. — I perceive you have disposed them 
under certain heads: to what heads would you have 
read? 

Col. Sidney. — My lord, let him give an account of it 
that did it. 

And then the King's counsel went on with their evi- 
dence. 

Can it be denied, that, at this day, if the publication 
of a libel be proved, it may be proposed to the defendant, 
without offence, to read any detached parts of it ? a pro- 
posal which may come from the court, if they see fit, for 
his benefit. The papers produced had been found in 
Sidney's study; and there could hardly be a question but 
that he had been the author. If Jeffreys intended the 
address he made for artifice, he was most deplorably off 
his guard; for the most natural reply which a prisoner 
would make, when told that he knew all about a matter 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 101 



with which he might be charged, would be, "My lord, I 
know nothing at all about it." 

Nor would an assumption by the judge that he had 
done any particular act, in any wise alter his course ; for 
having determined to deny the thing itself, he would be 
brought to the very point of denial by being challenged 
so publicly as the author. If it be intended to applaud 
the skill of the conspirator, Sidney, it may be agreed, 
without difficulty, that he opposed craft infinitely superior 
to that exercised against him, admitting a design to en- 
trap him. This last reply is justly celebrated : he would 
give no ground to his prosecutors ; and, at the last, would 
have had his writ of error, but for the dissent of the at- 
torney-general. Just before judgment, he exclaimed, 
"I must appeal to God and the world, I am not heard;" 
and after sentence pronounced, he firmly uttered his ap- 
peal to God, that inquisition for his blood might be made 
only against those who maliciously persecuted him for 
righteousness' sake. Jeffreys, as well he might, on hear- 
ing this, started from his seat, and lost his temper. " I 
pray God," cried he, "work in you a temper fit to go 
unto the other world, for I see you are not fit for this." 
— Col. Sidney. "My lord, feel my pulse (holding out his 
hand,) and see if I am disordered; I bless God, I never 
was in better temper than I am now." Sidney's solici- 
tor entertained a very different feeling: far from partici- 
pating in the prisoner's philosophical calmness, he could 
not help declaring, that the jury were a loggerheaded 
jury, for which he was immediately committed. It is 
said also, that the chief justice was seen to speak with 
the jury ; but the maxim, de mortuis nil nisi bonum, has 
never been of the least advantage to poor Jeffreys, whose 
9* 



102 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 

character is destined to bear every curse which the fierce 
imagination of men can devise. 

The attainder was reversed, because the law had been 
improperly expounded; and the friends of Russel and 
Sidney would, of course, combine to blacken the judge 
who had deprived them of their associates, when they 
themselves rose in power at the Revolution. Jeffreys 
had grossly erred ; but must be held acquitted upon this 
occasion of that vast brutality and artifice with which 
writers have loaded him : for, excepting Hale and Pem- 
berton, all his predecessors in that reign were accustomed 
to language and manners quite as arbitrary, and occasion- 
ally even more unpolished. 

However, this conduct plainly showed that he would 
go all lengths for the attainment of rank; or, as one 
writer says, " so as he rode on horseback, he cared not 
whom he rode over." And the truth was, that people in 
general were seriously frightened when they found this 
man seated on so high a throne: 1 they were prejudiced 
against him ; and, no doubt, regarded every thing which 
fell from him with much less allowance than the words of 
other contemporary judges, although no less violent when 
it suited their purposes. Burnet is outrageous upon the 
subject: "Jeffreys was scandalously vicious," says he, 
"and was drunk every day, besides a drunkenness of 
fury in his temper that looked like enthusiasm." He 
then launches out against the partiality and declamation 
which Sir George displayed on the bench, the indecency 
which he yielded to on his post ; and abuses his eloquence 



1 Evelyn says, "Sir George Jefferies was advanced, reputed the most 
;norant, but most daring." 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 103 



fis "viciously copious, and neither correct nor agreeable." 
It was very proper that a clergyman should feel scan- 
dalized at a character, who was frequently not only ebrius, 
but ebriolus ; but it does not follow from all this tirade, 
that Jeffreys was drunk every day ; and the future bishop 
could not be complimented on his choice of companions, 
if he had any actual proof of such indulgences : the fact 
was, that men of that day had adopted a system of mutual 
abuse and recrimination. Treby, who never left the 
bottle while there was a man to stand by it, comes out of 
the furnace a most respectable judge; and Jeffreys, as 
though he were a perpetual firebrand. 1 

His private life at this time is described much in the 
same manner by North, who had no great love for him, 
because he was for ever thwarting his brother, the lord 
keeper. He used to drink and talk with "good fellows 
and humourists:" and so he would unbend himself in 
"drinking, laughing, singing, kissing, and every extrava- 
gance of the bottle." But the writer is driven to con- 
fess, that when this judge was in temper, and had an in- 
different matter before him, he became a seat of justice 
better than any other. And then he had a set of bat- 
terers, as North calls them, but who were most probably 
parasites suffered to live upon his hospitalities ; and when 
they all sat down together, there was a general flow of 
abuse and scandal, which regaled the chief justice ama- 

1 Bevil Higgons, in his Review of Burnet's History, has observations 
upon this subject nearly similar : " If my Lord Jefferies," said he, " ex- 
ceeded the bounds of temperance now and then in an evening, it does not 
follow that he was drunk on the bench and in council." There are seve- 
ral other remarks which may be found in Higgons's Historical Works. 
Vol. ii. p. 263. 



104 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



zingly. Some of these hangers-on were at the bar; and 
although our author acquaints us that there was no 
friendship which he would not use ill, we cannot help 
chuckling at the idea, that he would fall upon these 
minions without mercy when he was pleased to do so, 
even in public; and this he called giving "a lick with 
the rough side of his tongue." Who can condemn the 
host for lashing such guests as these on occasion? He 
kept up the dignity of the bar by it ; for he said as much 
as that, although such men might be his boon compa- 
nions, he did not consider them as deserving of the least 
favour. And truly he was equally impartial, as far as 
relates to any preference of his friends when he got into 
the chancery, for there he lectured all the counsel round. 
From this we gather at once the secret of his violating 
friendship when he arrived at promotion; for none ex- 
cept abandoned characters would stoop to be his co-mates, 
and he had ample sense enough to know that they were 
never worth consideration. He met, however, occasion- 
ally, with more respectable men, amongst others with 
Evelyn. Very soon after Sidney's trial, at most a day 
or tAvo, he went to a grand wedding of one Mrs. Castle, 
where the lord mayor and several of the city quality 
were present — Judge Wilkins and Evelyn were there. 
Jeffreys and his brother judge danced with the bride, and 
were very merry. The party spent the afternoon, till 
eleven at night, in drinking healths, taking tobacco, and 
" talking," says the author of Sylva, "much beneath the 
gravity of judges that had but a day or two before con- 
demned Mr. Algernon Sidney." Yet every one knows 
that judges must unbend as well as other people; and the 
customs of times much later than those have warranted 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 10^ 



the pledging healths and cracking bottles even unto the 
peep of the day succeeding the bridal night. 

Some violences of his temper at this period may be 
accounted for, from the severe fits of the stone which in- 
temperance had bestowed on him. It must have been 
one of these which prompted his severity to Armstrong. 
Sir Thomas demanded the benefit of the law. Lord 
Chief Justice. " That you shall have, by the grace of 
God! see that execution be done on Friday next, ac- 
cording to law: you shall have the full benefit of the law." 
This looks like brutality; but Sir Thomas had almost 
infuriated the judge, by telling him that he had been 
robbed and stripped of his clothes; and therefore, as 
lawyers would not plead without money, that he could 
not fee them ; and he half hinted, that the court knew of 
his being plundered. 

When Armstrong found that nothing he could say 
would prevail, he exclaimed aloud against the chief, 
saying, "My blood be upon your head!" — "Let it, let 
it; I am clamour-proof," returned Jeffreys. After the 
great change of 1689, an attempt was made to procure 
50001. for the Lady Armstrong and her children, from 
the estates of Sir Thomas's judges and prosecutors; but, 
like many others of the same kind, the bill failed, and 
the attainder remained in force for some years, when it 
was reversed, but without the compensation clause. 

Fierce as he was, our chief justice did not always 
escape the sting of a repartee. He went a country as- 
size once, where an old man with a great beard came to 
give evidence, but had not the good fortune to please the 
judge: so he quarrelled with the beard, and said, "If 
your conscience is as large as your beard, you'll swear 



106 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



any tiling." The old blade was nettled, and briskly re- 
turned, " My lord, if you go about to measure consciences 
by beards, your lordship has none." He had a strange 
remembrance of slights. There was a certain jury at 
Guildhall, with one Best among them, who acquitted a 
man for publishing a pamphlet much against the re- 
corder's will (who was Jeffreys,) and he did not scruple 
to upbraid the twelve with perjury. The jury was so 
much irritated, that they moved the Old Bailey court for 
leave to indict him, and Mr. Best was very active in the 
business. Scroggs, the judge, said, that they had better 
defer their charge, for the sessions were nearly ended, 
and it could not be tried until the next ; and that he did 
not like to leave so high a man as the recorder under an 
imputation so long. The matter dropped, because Treby 
came in recorder before the next sessions ; but there was 
one who recollected Mr. Best very keenly for it. This 
man afterwards drank a health to the pious memory of 
Stephen Colledge, for which he was convicted, but ab- 
sconded to avoid the fine. However, he met the chief 
justice on horseback, some time afterwards, going the 
circuit ; and on being told who he was, cheated perhaps 
by some romantic idea that great men forget the injuries 
done them in their inferior stations, was so silly as to tell 
his name, and desire his service to his lordship. He little 
dreamt that he should be immediately fetched back, sent 
off to York jail, and thence brought to the King's Bench 
a prisoner, for a fine of ,£500. And Williams, the speak- 
er, shared the same fate: he had undergone the task of 
lecturing the present head of his court at the bar of the 
House of Commons, and was now sued to the utmost for 
publishing Dangerfield's Narrative of the Popish Plot, al- 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 107 



though in his capacity as speaker ; for which he paid no 
less a sum than =£8000, as a fine for his ministerial conduct. 
To notice all the state prosecutions in "which this judge 
figured, would be a long task, and inconsistent with the 
duty which we owe a kind and patient reader. He was, 
of course, the presiding magistrate on the principal of 
these occasions ; and though sometimes most unjustifiably 
rough, would generally keep the counsel in good order, 
confining them to the point in issue, and was a tolerably 
good guardian of such rules of evidence as were then un- 
derstood. Some remarkable passages, while he sat on 
the common law bench, cannot be passed over : one of 
which is a stormy conversation which he had with Mr. 
Ward, afterwards lord chief baron, 1 in an action against 
an ex-sheriff for arresting the lord mayor. The counsel 
was alluding to the trial of Pilkington and others for a 
riot, which he coloured over by calling it a matter of 
right and election: "No, Mr. Ward, that was not the 
question determined there,- interrupted my lord chief 
justice. — Mr. Ward. "My lord, I humbly conceive the 
issue of that cause did determine the question." — "No, 
no, I tell you it was not the question." — "I must submit 
it to your lordship." — "I perceive you do not understand 
the question that was then, nor the question that is now. 
You have made a long speech here, and nothing at all to 
the purpose ; you do not understand what you are about : 
I tell you it was no such question: — no," continued the 
chief justice, "it was not the question ; but the defendants 
there were tried for a notorious offence, and disorderly 
tumultuous assembly. Do not make such excursions, ad 



1 Edward Ward was attorney-general to King William in 1693; made 
chief baron in 1695; and died July 16, 1714, in office. 



108 LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 



captandum populum, with your flourishes. I will none 
of your enamel, nor your garniture." And then, after 
a few more words pro and con, — "Indeed, Mr. Ward, 
you do not understand the question at all, but launch 
out into an ocean of discourse, that is wholly wide from 
the mark." — "Will your lordship please to hear me?" — 
" If you would speak to the purpose ; come to the ques- 
tion, man ! I see you do not understand what you are 
about." — "My lord — " — "Nay, be as angry as you will, 
Mr. Ward," &c. — [Then there was a little hiss begun.] 
Lord chief justice. "Who is that? What, in the name 
of God ! I hope we are now past that time of day, that 
humming and hissing shall be used in courts of justice; 
but I would fain know that fellow that dare to hum and 
hiss while I sit here ; I'll assure him, be he who he will, 
I'll lay him by the heels, and make an example of him. 
Indeed, I knew the time when causes were to be carried 
according as the mobile hiss'd or humm'd ; and I do not 
question but they have as good a will to it now. Come, 
Mr. Ward, pray let us have none of your fragrancies, 
and fine rhetorical flowers, to take the people with." 
There was a little more blustering, but great civility on 
the part of Ward, when Serjeant Maynard got up, and 
stated the law, which the chief justice adopted in a mo- 
ment, and all went on quietly. He had also a habit of 
scolding the popular advocates of those noisy times, if 
they happened to displease him ; and this he would do 
with great severity. Williams, the speaker, his old ene- 
my, who was afterwards solicitor-general, 1 and Mr. Wal- 
lop, came in for a full share of this punishment. 



1 William Williams, some time recorder of Chester and speaker of the 
House of Commons, was solicitor-general with Fowis, attorney, during 



LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 109 

In the trial of Braddon and Speke, for publishing a 
statement that the Earl of Essex had been murdered in 
the Tower, the latter counsel was especially visited with 
an effusion of this kind. He had asked some question 
which -the chief by no means approved of, and on his 
persisting, — "Nay, Mr. Wallop," exclaimed his lordship, 
"you shan't hector the court out of their understand- 
ings." — Mr. Wallop. "I refer myself to all that hear 
me, if I attempted any such thing as to hector the court." 
— Lord chief justice. "Refer yourself to all that hear 
you! refer yourself to the court: 'tis a reflection upon 
the government, I tell you, your question is, and you 
shan't do any such thing while I sit here, by the grace of 
God, if I can help it." — Mr. Wallop. "I am sorry for 
that; I never intended any such thing, my lord." — Lord 
chief justice. "Pray behave yourself as you ought, Mr. 
Wallop; you must not think to huff or swagger here." 
And afterwards he said, amongst other things, " We have 
got such strange kind of notions, now-a-days, that for- 
sooth men think they may say any thing, because they 
are counsel." With a little more coarseness of the same 
kind, he contrived at last to lay the spirit of Mr. Wallop. 
He fell very foul upon Mr. Stanhope on the trial of 
Sacheverell for a riot. There was a quarrel about the 
mayor's mace, and the counsel thought there was no 
great sauciness in demanding the ensign of office. He 

the latter part of James the Second's reign, and was made a baronet in 
July, 1688. He was, nevertheless, one of King William's learned coun- 
sel, and is famed for introducing the Treating Act. His wife was the 
daughter and co-heiress of Watkin Kiffin, Esq. He died July 11, 1700. 
Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, that munificent lord of Wales, is his great- 
graridson. 

10 



110 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



was mistaken. "I say it was saucy," cried Jeffreys; 
"and I tell you, you had been saucy if you had done it; 
for every man that meddles out of his province is saucy. 
Every little prick-eared fellow, I warrant you, must go 
to dispose of the government!" Stanhope was sulky, 
and he replied, "It may be I should have known better 
than to have gone on such an errand." — Lord chief jus- 
tice. "So you would have done well to do; and you 
should know better than to ask such insignificant, im- 
pertinent questions as you do," &c. Serjeant Bigland 
was laid hold of in the same trial. He was recorder of 
Nottingham, and swore in the sham mayor. When he 
came to be sworn, he told the court, that he had asked 
the mayor, whether he desired his advice as recorder, or 
how? Jeffreys took him up: "But what authority had 
you to swear him ? I reckon it to be worse in those peo- 
ple that understand the law, than in others, that they 
should be present at such things. Bo you ask me as re- 
corder, or as counsel? But they would have done well 
to advise people to meddle with their own business; let 
my brother take that along with him." 1 

It is difficult to say, why he should have been so grossly 
accused of partiality: the following instance will show 
that the crown counsel had no more mercy than the rest, 
when they ventured beyond the rules of evidence. In 
Titus Oates's case, when he was indicted for perjury, 
Jeffreys would not suffer the attorney-general to prove 



* Roger North says, that in Sacheverell's trial, the lord chief justice 
sided with him, and reproved the attorney-general : but how can this be? 
for the attorney-general was not there, and the chief justice was clearly 
against the defendants. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. Ill 



the narrative of the popish plot, delivered to the House 
of Commons by Oates, till he had distinctly satisfied the 
court of its having been made on oath in the Lords' 
House. And when Sir Robert Sawyer put a witness into 
the box, and asked him, whether what he swore at a for- 
mer trial was true, the judge burst forth against the 
King's counsel: "That is very nauseous and fulsome, Mr. 
Attorney," said he, "methinks, in a court of justice." — 
Mr. Attorney-general. " 'Tis not the first time by tAventy 
that such evidences have been given." — Lord chief jus- 
tice. "I hate such precedents at all times, let it be done 
never so often. Shall I believe a villain one word he 
says, when he owns that he forswore himself?" — Attor- 
ney-general. " Pray, my lord, give me leave ; I must 
pursue my Master's interest." Then the solicitor-gene- 
ral tried to persuade Sir George, but in vain ; and when 
Mr. North was beginning, he was stopped with, "Look 
ye, sir, when the court have delivered their opinion, the 
counsel should sit down, and not dispute it any further." 
And so it ended. 

However, nothing could exceed the treatment which a 
reluctant witness would experience from this Judge. He 
fastened himself on such a person at the trial of Lady 
Lisle; and he was Dunne, the messenger Avho carried on 
a correspondence between the prisoner and Hicks, the 
person she was charged with harbouring; but the witness 
bore the attack for some time with great adroitness, for 
he seemed to have made a resolve that his mistress should 
never suffer through his testimony. However, Jeffreys 
grew quite mad; ho lectured the witness, menaced him 
with hell-fire, then persuaded him, and uttered the most 
savage exclamations; but all in vain. At one time he 



112 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



thought of his old "witticisms, and asked the man what 
trade he followed. "My/ lord, I am a baker by trade." 
— "And wilt thou bake thy bread at such easy rates?" 
The witness had said that he travelled a great many miles, 
and had only a piece of cake and cheese for it. " I as- 
sure thee, thy bread is very light weight, it will scarce 
pass the balance here." He got out a name with all the 
acumen of the most wire-drawing advocate. — " Now must 
I know that man's name." — "The man's name that I 
went to at Morton, my lord ? ' ' — Lord chief justice. ' ' Yes ; 
and look to it, it may be I know the man already; and 
tell at what end of the town the man lives too." — Dunne. 
"My lord, I cannot tell his name presently." — Lord 
chief justice. " Oh ! pray now, do not say so ; you must 
tell us, indeed you must think of his name a little." — 
Dunne. " My lord, if I can mind it, I will." — Lord chief 
justice. "Prithee do." — Dunne. " His name, truly, my 
lord, I cannot rightly tell for the present." — Lord chief 
justice. "Prithee recollect thyself; indeed thou canst 
tell us if thou wilt." — Dunne. "My lord, I can go to 
the house again, if I were at liberty." — Lord chief jus- 
tice. "I believe it, and so could I; but really neither 
you nor I can be spared at present ; therefore, prithee do 
us the kindness now to tell us his name." — Dunne. "Truly 
my lord, I cannot mind his name at present." — Lord 
chief justice. " Alack-a-day ! We must needs have it! 
Come, refresh your memory a little." And then it came 
out. 

Dunne made a few trips, but was very cool at first : 
"How came you to be so impudent," cried the judge, 
"as to tell me a lie?" — "I beg your pardon, my lord." 
— Lord chief justice. " You beg my pardon ! That is 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. Ill 



not because you told me a lie, but because I have found 
you in a lie. I hope, gentlemen of the jury, you take 
notice of the strange and horrible carriage of this fellow." 
The worst was yet to come for poor Dunne : he was again 
at issue about some fact which Jeffreys wished to get from 
him, and which he was by no means desirous of giving, 
when the judge struck upon a new plan, saying, "Dost 
thou think, that after all this pains that I have been at 
to get an answer to my question, that thou canst banter 
me with such sham stuff as this? Hold the candle to his 
face, that we may see his brazen face." The witness 
declared that he was cluttered out of his senses, and that 
he would say whatever the court desired. And soon af- 
terwards they held the candle nearer to his nose, but then 
he would tell nothing, except that he was robbed of his 
senses. Jeffreys had long since summed up his character ; 
" Thou art a strange, prevaricating, shuffling, snivelling, 
lying rascal," said my lord. 1 

We come now to September, 1G84, when Sir George 
Jeffreys was summoned to the cabinet. No act in the 
King's reign could have annoyed Lord Guilford more 
than an introduction of this kind; and in truth it was 
something like the letting a bear loose into a garden. 
The lord keeper had been brought up with the old school 
of Charles the Second's better days; he was a staid sober- 
thinking counsellor, rather stiff in his demeanour, but 
loyal to a proverb. It was, in spite of this, his misfortune 
to come under the denomination of a trimmer, a class 



1 The whole of the very long examination of this man is well worth 
ip reading. It is to be found in the State Trials, fol. vol. iv. pp. 10is 
-122. 

10* 



11-1 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



of people whom Jeffreys maligned and persecuted with- 
out example. These persons were a subdivision of the 
Tory party who would not go along with all the high- 
flown measures of the court. Yet we shall see that the 
hatred which Sir George bore them ultimately cost him 
his life. 

The venerable sages who have kept the great seal of 
England, seem generally to have regarded such as have 
approached their dominion with much jealousy; Lord 
Ellesmere could never reconcile himself with Coke; and 
North felt an uneasiness whilst he had the seal, which 
must be mainly attributed to his proximity with Jeffreys. 
In a word whatever the one proposed the other thwarted; 
and as Sir George was fully in the Duke of York's con- 
fidence, who influenced the King's mind very greatly 
during the last period of his life, it was no marvel to find 
the young man of thirty-six gaining a frequent victory, 
much to the mortification of the veteran. However, when 
they came to contest a matter of business, the man of 
real metal prevailed. As soon as the new cabinet minis- 
ter had returned from his northern expedition against 
the corporations, the lord keeper was addressed by the 
Duke of York on a Sunday morning, and requested to 
aid a motion to be made on that evening to His Majesty. 

All the great men were shy as foxes ; and it soon ap- 
peared, that a great secret was on the point of develop- 
ment. The lord keeper came to the cabinet ignorant of 
the whole, and the King took his seat, when up rose Jef- 
freys with the recusant rolls before him, and made a 
speech as follows: "Sir, I have a business to lay before 
your Majesty, which I took notice of in the north, and 
which will deserve your Majesty's royal commiseration. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 115 

It is the case of numberless numbers of your good sub- 
jects that are imprisoned for recusancy. I have the list 
of them here to justify what I say. They are so many, 
that the great jails cannot hold them without their lying 
one upon another." When he had spoken, he laid his 
papers and rolls on the table; but no one answered him 
for some time, contrary to North's expectation, who con- 
cluded that some Protestant lord would take up the matter. 
At length the Lord Guilford addressed the King: "I 
humbly entreat your Majesty," said he, "that my lord 
chief justice may declare, whether all the persons named 
in t^ese rolls were actually in the prisons or not." The 
chief justice hastily replied, "that all the jails in Eng- 
land could not hold them; all certainly were not actual 
prisoners, but they were liable to prosecution if any pee- 
vish sheriff chose to enforce the law." On this, the lord 
keeper turned to the King, and boldly said, "he thought 
that there was no reason to grant such a motion then ; 
that all these persons were not Roman Catholics, but that 
there were many sectaries amongst them ; that they were 
a turbulent and seditious people ; and that if it pleased 
'the King to pardon any Roman Catholic, he might issue 
a particular and express immunity in favour of the per- 
sons intended to receive grace." The King was very at- 
tentive, and the matter dropped for that time. It had 
not escaped the lord keeper that it would have been his 
province to affix the seal to the proposed general pardon. 
As soon as the great man returned home, he exclaimed, 
"Are they all stark mad?" And then he noted it down, 
thus : 

Motion, cui solus obstiti. 
Motion, which I alone opposed. 1 

* North's Lives. 



11G LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



However, in the next year, the royal compassion was ex- 
tended to some particular cases. 

This was a bold proceeding for a Protestant chief jus- 
tice, and savoured highly of that benighted bigotry on 
the part of James, which led him so soon afterwards to 
brave the indignation of his subjects. 

Whether this judge had any religion of his own, it is 
difficult indeed to say : he was ostensibly a Protestant, 
and it is affirmed, that he declined in favour at court 
through his reluctance to countenance the new religion. 
Nevertheless, Lady Russel, in a letter to Dr. Fitzwilliam, 
(April 1, 1687,) tells him, that Lord Peterborough.was 
declared a Roman Catholic, and that two more, the chan- 
cellor and the lord president (Sunderland,) were reported 
as forthcoming papists on the following Sunday : yet, for- 
tunately, as it happens upon many occasions, report is 
one thing — fact another; and from the best authorities 
we now have of the bearing of Jeffreys towards either 
faith, he certainly did the most acts for the support of 
the Protestant establishment. Sir John Dairy mple also 
affirms, that the chancellor regretted his having yielded 
so much to the King's inclination for popery ; that he 
" hesitated, repented, trembled." The choice of his chap- 
lain, Luke Beaulieu 1 of Christ Church, confirms the sur- 
mise of his attachment to the reformed faith. He was 
divinity reader in St. George's Chapel at Windsor, and 
published several things against popery; and Wood says, 
that he asserted the rights of his Majesty and the Church 

1 This divine was born in France, and educated at the university of 
Saumur. He came over to England, where he was naturalized, and lie- 
came a student at Oxford for the sake of the public library. He was 
rector of Whitchurch, Oxon, in the year }GSr>. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 117 



very usefully. Another of his chaplains was Thomas 
Spark. 1 When the brief allowed by the King for the 
benefit of the distressed Protestant refugees was put in 
operation, Jeffreys (who at first refused to affix the seal 
to it 2 ) was so strict as to the qualifications of the relieved 
persons, that it was believed he admitted no one to re- 
ceive the alms, who would not take the sacrament from 
his own chaplain. And the remarkable passage which 
occurred at his death, when he sent for Scot, another di- 
vine and author against popery, to give him consolation, 
confirms still more his secret regard for protestantism. 3 
When a man comes to die, the true feelings of his heart 
are apt to burst forth ; and the main argument to prove 
King Charles II. a Catholic, is, that he had Hudleston, a 
priest, smuggled, as it were, into his apartment, which 
was in general the rendezvous of Protestant bishops ; and 

1 Spark, student of Christ Church, anno 1672, aged seventeen, was the 
son of Archibald Spark, of Northop, in Flintshire. He was indebted to 
Lord Jeffreys for much advancement. He died in 1692, rector of Ewe- 
hurst, near Guildford, Surrey; of Norton, or Hog's Norton, near Bos- 
worth, Leicestershire; prebendary of Lichfield and of Rochester, D. D. 
By his excesses, and too much agitation in obtaining spiritualities, he 
brought himself into an ill disposition of body, which, contrary to his 
expectations, brought him in the prime of his years to the grave. — Wood. 

2 Lady Russel tells something which shows that the chancellor had 
some good points which he would occasionally develop. In one of her 
letters, she says, "I am unwilling to shake off all hopes about the brief, 
though I know them that went to the chancellor since the refusal, and 
his answer does not encourage one's hopes. But he is not a lover of 
smooth language; so that in that respect we may not so soon despair." — 
Letters, p. 55. Dr., afterwards Bishop Beveridge, objected to the read- 
ing the brief in the cathedral of Canterbury, as contrary to the rubric. 
Tillotson replied, "Doctor, doctor, Charity is above rubrics." — Note to 
the above. 

3 This will be related hereafter. 



118 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



having succeeded in obtaining his priest, confessed, and 
died a true Catholic. 1 

In November, 1684, Mr. Rosewell, a dissenting mi- 
nister, a gentleman of sufficient consequence to be pa- 
negyrized by a funeral sermon, 2 came within the grasp of 
the chief justice, and by a good fortune quite remarkable 
for those times, ultimately escaped. He was taken in his 
own house, and carried by water to a coffee-house near 
him " like a roaring lion, or a raging bear ; " and, amongst 
Aldermanbury, where Jeffreys lived. Jeffreys received 
other questions, asked him where he preached on such a 
day, naming it. Rosewell answered in Latin, that he 
1 1 oped his lordship would not insist upon his answering 
that question, as he might thereby accuse himself. The 
judge, in a passion, said, he supposed the prisoner could 
not speak another sentence in Latin to save his neck. 
The parson thought it civil to try another language, and 
so he spoke in Greek. Jeffreys was astonished at this, 
but soon ordered him to be taken away; and at night 
there came a warrant for committing him to the Gate- 
house on a charge of treason. The next morning his wife 
begged admittance to him ; but meeting with a refusal, 

1 Extract from Dalrymple's Memoirs, Appendix, part i. p. 96, et seq.: 
— "What the Duke of York said was not heard; but the King of Eng- 
land said from time to time very loud, 'Yes, with all my heart.' — 'The 
King wills that every body should retire except the Earls of Bath and 
Feversham.' The physicians went into a closet, the door of which was 
immediately closed, and Chiffins brought Mr. Huddleston in. The Duke 
of York, in presenting him, said, 'Sir, here is a man who has saved your 
life,* and is now come to save your soul.' The King answered, ' He is 
welcome.' He afterwards confessed himself with great sentiments of 
devotion and repentance." * By Mead, 1G'J2. 



Al'ier the hattlc of Worcester. 



LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 119 



she petitioned the great man for an interview, who loaded 
her husband with the most severe invectives, calling him a 
great knave, a great villain, and so on, and bade her petition 
the King. 1 This she did, and the King read her request, 
the chief justice standing near him; upon which leave was 
given that she should visit the prison at the discretion of 
my lord chief justice, who, nevertheless, huffed very much 
when he heard of His Majesty's kind speech, and kept 
her from her husband for several days afterwards. Roger 
North, always railing at those to whom he was politically 
opposed, informs us, that Itosewell had made his peace 
with the chief justice, whence some corrupt motive is 
drawn as a natural inference. He would make us be- 
lieve, that a bribe was taken in this affair ; but confesses, 
in another place, that when Jeffreys was pleased to be 
impartial, no one became a seat of justice better. We 
shall presently see that there is no ground for imputing 
corruption ; though it may be very true, as North asserts 
that the judge was "tickled with mirth and laughter at 
the King's counsel," and "openly rejoiced at the acci- 
dent." This accident was a flaw in the indictment. 
"When Sir George came upon the bench, he seemed to 
have sat down with the most impartial resolutions, and 
seeing Mr. Wallop, an advocate, always obnoxious to him 
because he was retained for the dissenters, he asked him 
what business he had there. Wallop alleged a curiosity 
to hear the trial, and moved a short distance from the 



* When Mrs. Rosewell discovered some uneasiness at this ahuse of her 
husband, " Mind him not," said the friend to whom she was speaking, 
"you'll be able to hold up your head with comfort, when he will look 
down with shame. " 



120 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



bar. But Jeffreys declared that the trial should not pro- 
ceed whilst he was in court, and so he was obliged to re- 
treat. He was afterwards employed to argue in arrest 
of judgment on Rosewell's behalf. As the case pro- 
ceeded, the dreadful magistrate was softened, and gave the 
accused a very fair and patient hearing ; but, notwith- 
standing, the jury pronounced him guilty. Jeffreys be- 
haved with more gentlemanly manner to this jury, who 
were persons of very good station, than he was accus- 
tomed, and evidently repressed the coarseness so familiar 
to him. The fact was, that the principal witnesses against 
the minister were three women of infamous character, 
common informers against conventicles; one of whom 
was convicted of perjury, and pilloried in the next reign, 
and another whipped at the cart's tail for some bad be- 
haviour. 

Rosewell made a very admirable defence ; and, happily 
for him, there was present a baronet, Sir John Talbot, 
who though not friendly to dissenters, highly appreciated 
what he had said, and thought the verdict wrong. From 
the trial he posted away to the King, and declared, that 
he had seen the life of a person, who appeared to be a 
gentleman and a scholar, in danger upon such evidence 
as he would not hang his dog on; and, "Sir," says he, 
"if your Majesty suffers this man to die, we are none of 
us safe in our houses." This address had a full influence 
upon the royal ear ; and whilst it was operating, in came 
Jeffreys, overjoyed, and vaunted of the signal service 
which he and the Surrey jury had done ; * when to his 
utter confusion the monarch replied, under a strong feel- 

1 Rosewell was tried at Kingston-upon-Thames. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 121 



ing of sympathy, that the prisoner must not die, and that 
he, Jeffreys, must find out some way to bring him off. In 
due time judgment was moved for against the preacher 
by Sir Thomas Jenner, the recorder, to whom Rosewell 
attributes his persecution; and the attorney-general, 1 
who was present, could not have had any presentiment of 
the coming scene. The convict did what was very com- 
mon, but almost always unsuccessful in those times — he 
moved to arrest the judgment. The King's counsel of 
course expected a fierce reply from the chief, overturn- 
ing all the objections without scruple, and the usual sub- 
missive nod from the puisne judges ; but instead — 
"What say you to it, brother Jenner, and the King's 
counsel?" inquired the judge. "I cannot see," doled 
forth Mr. Serjeant Jenner, 2 the recorder, " that he has 

1 Sir Robert Sawyer. He conducted the court prosecutions with suf- 
ficient violence; but was turned out by James the Second for his objec- 
tions to the dispensing power, by which James proposed to introduce 
the Catholic religion. He was an old friend of Mr. Pepys, who ex- 
presses himself very much pleased on one or two occasions to find his 
old chamber acquaintance in such good practice at the bar. Sir Robert's 
daughter was married to a son of Lord Pembroke. 

2 Thomas Jenner, made a baron of the Exchequer in 1G8G, when 
honest Gregory was turned out; and judge of the Common Pleas in 
1688. He was the judge who punned upon Dr. Hough's name, during 
the famous controversy between the King and Magdalen College re- 
specting the election of a president. " Sir," said Jenner to the Doctor, 
" you must not think to huff us." Hough was afterwards Bishop of 
Worcester. This Baron Jenner was a mere tool of the court, and was 
afterwards excepted out of King William's bill of indemnity. There is 
reason to believe that he was one of the judges who tried the Duke of 
Monmouth's adherents in the west. 

From Sir Thomas Tenner's Speech to his Wife and Children. 
A wise learned serjeant-at-law I was made, 
And a fine dainty coif was put on my head, 
11 



122 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



alleged any objection, which here requires an answer from 
any of us, that are of counsel for the King." Hogarth, 
or some such genius, could alone have represented to us 
the countenance of the person thus addressed, when he 
archly and drily returned, "Yes, brother, methinks he 
does." And again, after some words from the attorney- 
general, there was the same tenderness. "But if I take 
the gentleman right, (for I tell you beforehand justice 
must be done to all people impartially. The crime is a 
very great crime that he stands accused of; and the jury 
have found him guilty of the crime laid in the indict- 
ment. But if I take him aright,") &c. The attorney 
was thunder-struck, he had never dreamed of such a hu- 
man kindness ; nevertheless he mustered up courage to say, 
"All this, my lord, is only in delay." — " Mr. Attorney ! 
De vitd hominis nulla est cunctatio longa." x Rosewell, 
finding how the tide had set in, exclaimed, "I pray 



Which is heavier by far than an hundred of lead. 
This it is to be learned and witty. 

But soon after this I was made the recorder, 
To keep the worshipful rabble in order, 
And wore a red gown with long sleeves and border. 
This it is, &c. 

Ey great James I was raised to the Common Pleas bench, 
'Cause he saw I had exquisite politic sense, 
Which his wisdom perceived in the future ten3e. 

- This it is, &c. 

At Sarum five hundred pounds have I gotten, 
To save malefactors from swinging in cotton, 
For which they were hang'd and are now almost rotten. 
This it is, &c. 

We can't linger too long, when a man's life is at stake. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 123 



God to bless your lordship ! " — Lord chief justice. "Nay, 
you have no need to thank me ; for I desire to do justice 
to all men." And then he thundered against conventi- 
clers, concluding : "I could not forbear giving that hint 
that I did, that this might be a warning to people, how 
they transgress the law in going to such meetings." 

Kosewell was afterwards pardoned; the court incli- 
ning strongly in favour of his objections. 

The struggle respecting the recusants was not the only 
contest between Lord Guilford, the chief of the trim- 
mers, and the lord chief justice, the managing tool of 
the high party. In reality, it seems to have been under- 
stood that Jeffreys was to have the seals as soon as the 
lord keeper could be displaced ; and death, which over- 
took that great man shortly afterwards, probably saved 
them the odium, and him the mortification of delivering 
them to his rival. The promotion of Bedingfield, 1 who 
became chief justice of the Common Pleas in James the 
Second's time, on the removal of poor honest Jones, gave 
Sir George an opportunity of trying his strength against 
the old statesman. The lord keeper wished to make this 
man a judge, and he told him of such his intention. With 
a thousand acknowledgments, the Serjeant bowed down, 
and poured forth what is common when a great man 
speaks, adding, that he should own his preferment from 
that quarter, and no other, as long as he lived. Now the 
Serjeant had a brother, a woollen-draper in London, who 
was one of the chief 's companions. No sooner had Jeffreys 
discovered the channel through which the pliant counsellor 



1 This chief justice died suddenly whilst he was receiving the sacra- 
ment, in 1687. 



124 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



was to reach the bench, than he sent for this draper, and 
plainly told him, that his brother must be judge through 
my lord chief justice's interest, or not at all ; for that he 
should be opposed if he presumed to owe his elevation to 
any other. North tells us, that Bedingfield was glad to 
compound for his promotion in any way rather than af- 
front the powerful favourite, and the lord keeper had the 
generosity to overlook this want of resolution ; so that 
the Serjeant had his place in due time, though not during 
the life of Lord Guilford, whom he avoided ever after this 
incident. 1 

Another story of the same kind belongs to the history of 
Chief Justice Wright. 2 When this person was a serjeant, 
he brought himself, through a prodigal style of living, 
into a state of the deepest distress ; so that, as he de- 
clared, unless he were made a judge, his ruin was sealed. 
But he was not nice about trifles, and had the particular 
good fortune to have made Sir George Jeffreys acquainted 
with his easy character, which led to as much friendship as 
Sir George was capable of. On a vacancy, therefore, 

1 He got his place in the Common Pleas, Feb. 13, 16SG, and was made 
chief justice, April 21, in the same year. 

2 Sir Robert Wright was descended from a good family at Thetford, 
in Norfolk, and bore a character for extravagance and licentiousness. He 
was "of a handsome person, voluble tongue, and plausible behaviour;" 
which ensured him some very fair practice, although he seems to have 
been but superiicial in his profession: for he frequently came to his 
friend North, when he had an opinion to give, got his advice, and then 
wrote it down as his own. When North was in town, he contrived the 
business by post, and meanwhile, put his clients off on pretence of more 
serious consideration. He married a daughter of Dr. Wren, Bishop of 
Ely, which set him going on the Norfolk circuit. He died at last mi- 
serably in Newgate, in the beginning of King William's reign, being 
charged with an endeavour to subvert the government. 



LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 125 



Wright was to be judge. But all powerful as his patron 
was at court, another person must be consulted — the lord 
keeper ; and with this upright man he had little hope from 
the following circumstance : — 

When they both went the Norfolk circuit together, they 
became very intimate ; and the serjeant finding his purse 
empty, availed himself of his brother North's friendship, 
by borrowing his money. These loans became at last so 
considerable, as to induce North to take a mortgage of 
his friend's estate, which he charged with 1500?. How- 
ever, it was not long before the serjeant desired some 
more money, and borrowed 500?. accordingly from Sir 
Walter Plummer on the same estate, making an affidavit 
that it was free from all incumbrances. Plummer brought 
the affidavit to Sir Francis North, while he held the ori- 
ginal mortgage, but he said nothing on the subject, and 
the serjeant had his pockets filled a second time out of 
the estate. When the King asked his lord keeper whether 
this gentleman was not a proper person to be a judge, the 
case assumed a very different feature ; his lordship said, 
" he knew him but too well : he was satisfied that he was 
the most unfit person in the world to be judge." — 
"Then," said the King, "it must not be." But then 
came the influence of Jeffreys. Again and again the 
King pressed the lord keeper, saying, " Why may not 
Wright be a judge?" And, at length, Lord Guilford 
told his Majesty every thing, the perjury not excepted ; 
and it was very creditable that he would not speak ill of 
his old acquaintance till his duty overpowered him. "And 
now," said he, "I have done my duty to your Majesty, 
and am ready to obey your Majesty's commands, in case 
it be your pleasure that this man shall be a judge." — 
11* 



120 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



"My lord," said the King, "I thank you:" and wont 
away. Soon after came the warrant, and the keeper 
sealed it. 1 

Such events as these maybe called the victories of the 
chief justice over the head of the Chancery ; and it had 
been well if the former could have been content with his 
triumph, and had not chequered it with the blemish of 
arrogance. Vain and upstart, he shook forth his new 
plumage for the public wonder; and, decked with the be- 
witching influences of a court favourite, stalked out su- 
preme. This was one way by which he vented himself. 
There was formerly a sidebar below in Westminster-hall, 
where the King's Bench judges used to robe ; while the 
court of Chancery sat a little above, but within view of 
the judges. Jeifreys saw Wright walking in the hall, his 
promotion being determined on, and beckoned him. The 
Serjeant approached very humbly ; on which the chief took 
him by the shoulders, whispered in his ear, and flung him 
off, holding out his arms at the same time, and leaning 
over the bar in the sight of Lord Guilford, who observed 
the motion, and was hurt at it. It was as much as to say, 
says North, that in spite of that man there, Wright should 
be a judge. 

One instance more of his hatred to this eminent indi- 
vidual, and we have done. There happened to be a dis- 
pute between the Duke of Norfolk and his brother, which 
was heard in Chancery. The chief justices, of whom 
North was one, and the chief baron, were asked for their 
opinons, which they gave; but Lord Nottingham, the 
chancellor, decreed the contrary, without canvassing 

' See North's Lives, Ho. pp. 246, 217, 248. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 127 



tlieir reasons. When North became lord keeper he re- 
versed this decree, on which an appeal went up to the 
House of Lords ; and Jeffreys, chief justice, indulged him- 
self with a formal abuse of this latter opinion, which he 
loaded with every censure, and hesitated not to affront 
his lordship himself,. which was a rudeness quite unheard 
of in that august assembly. He procured, however, the 
keeper's decree to be reversed, for a papist was affected 
by it ; and just then it was the interest of court suitors to 
support popery. 

This heedless judge would come down to the council 
sometimes quite drunk, and inveigh against trimmers. 
The justices of Stepney and Wapping once fell out, and by 
the violence of two parties, headed by Smith and Bailey, 
the sessions were disturbed. One of these factions, that 
of Smith, was patronised by Sir George ; and he came to 
the board quite furious, telling the King, that he had 
trimmers in his court, and would never be happy while 
trimmers were there. The lord keeper drily answered, 
(for he knew that all this outrage was levelled at him, 
the principal trimmer,) that the chief justice seemed so 
well informed on the subject of these quarrels, it would 
be advisable to refer the whole matter to his arbitration. 
This was agreed to; but the fracas continued for some 
time, till Bailey's party was overturned. It was so or- 
dered, says North. This fertile and lively writer lets fly 
another arrow at our chief justice for helping off one 
Hayes with the jury, who was tried for treason about this 
time, adding, "upon what terms who knows?" Hayes 
came to his trial towards the close of the year 1G84, and 
certainly was acquitted ; but on examining the report in 
the State Trials, it appears, that the judge rather leaned 



128 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



against him when the evidence was summed up : so easy 
is it to entertain and create a prejudice against men who 
have become obnoxious. 

In February, 1685, the King died; it was at a very 
critical moment, for measures had been adopted for re- 
conciling him with his son, the Duke of Monmouth, and 
his brother was about to visit Scotland by the royal com- 
mand. It was the policy of Charles to keep himself un- 
shackled, and that of his brother to spread such toils round 
the monarch as should secure him from the approach of 
those he in reality loved the most. The parliament, the 
cabal, even the fair chamber counsel, had failed to enchain 
this master of dissimulation ; but his heart had one avenue 
open, and there natural affection lived and throve. Very 
important were the changes which ensued upon his decease; 
and favourably so, according to the probability of all 
human events, for Jeffreys. Had the liberal party, with 
Monmouth at their head, been blessed with the royal 
countenance, the day of retribution had sooner overtaken 
the judge who had robbed them of their best associates, 
and gibed at their love for freedom: as Providence willed 
it, there was for him a change from suspense to a tri- 
umphant certainty ; from the prospect of a headsman and 
axe, to the stillest whisperings of the royal closet. The 
Duke of York was King, and Jeffreys his prime minister. 

On the 15th of May, 1685, the honours of the peerage 
were conferred upon the ambitious favourite : it was the 
.second instance of ennobling a chief justipe which we find 
in our history. 1 Probably, as Mr. Nichols suggests, he 



'Hubert de Burgh, a very considerable judge in the reign of Henry 
the Third, was the first who attained to the honour. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



129 



composed or dictated the preamble to his own patent ; 
and as it tends to illustrate the intention of parties at 
that time, the original and translation are here given : — 



ORIGINAL. 

Quum nihil magis regium sit, 
quam eos, qui se vel in toga vel in 
armis claros et insignes reddiderunt 
turn premiis augere turn honoribus 
illustrare; quum-que predilectus et 
perquam fidelis consiliarius noster 
Georgius Jeffreys, eques auratus et 
baronettus, per omnes jurispru- 
dentiae gradus, ea industrial et feli- 
citate processerit, ut nos, cum dux 
Eboracensis essemus, eum pro so- 
licitatore nostro generali elegeri- 
raus, ejusque fidem et fortitudinem 
in omnibus quae vel personam vel 
res' nostras spectarunt semper ex- 
ploratam habuerimus, illo praeser- 
tim tempore cum prava quorundam 
malevoloruminstigationenosaprae- 
clarissimo fratre nostro domino Ca- 
rolo secundo, nuper Magnac Britan- 
nia;, Scotiae, &c. ipso licet invitis- 
simo, avulsi fuimus, et a suavissimil 
ipsius praesentia, primum in Flan- 
driam, postea in Scotiam, tantum 
non relegati ; quae omnia perpendens 
frater noster amantissimus, et sin- 
gularia Georgii Jeffreys' merita ali- 
quo modo agnoscere cupiens, eum 
ad summa juris dicundi tribunalia 
evexit,unde prima capitalis Cestriae 
justiciarius evasit, deinde capitalis 



• TRANSLATION. 

Since nothing can be more wor- 
thy of a king, than to enrich with 
rewards and dignify with honours 
such as have distinguished them- 
selves in civil and military achieve- 
ments; and since our much loved 
and right faithful counsellor George 
Jeffreys, knight and baronet, hath 
advanced through the degrees of 
jurisprudence with such diligence 
and success, as that, when we were 
Duke of York, we chose him to be 
our solicitor-general, and held his 
fidelity and courage undoubted in 
all things which touched our person 
or our affairs, especially at that 
time, when by the wicked instiga- 
tion of some factious persons, we 
were torn from our most illustrious 
brother, our Lord, Charles the Se- 
cond, late of Great Britain, Scot- 
land, &c. against his will, and 
scarcely less than banished from 
his most kindly presence, first into 
Flanders, then into Scotland ; duly 
considering all which, and desirous 
in some way of acknowledging the 
merits of the said George Jeffreys, 
our most beloved brother raised him 
to the highest judicial benches; first 
to be chief justice of Chester, then 



1 " Dicti " should have been here. 



130 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



justiciarius Regii Banciapud West- chief justice of the King's Bench 
monasterium, ubi etiamnum sedet, at Westminster, where he even now 
justitiamet tutelamsubditis nostris sits, resolutely and faithfully ad- 
ad normam legis intrepide et fide- ministering justice and protection 
liter administrans : quarum ejus vir- to our subjects according to the law: 
tutum intuitu, id quod supra me- in consideration of whose merits, 
moratus frater noster, dum adhuc and which our brother above men- 
viveret, in animo habuit, nos jam tioned intended, whilst he lived, we, 
sponte nostra, et pro ea qua dictum of our own will, and from that re- 
Georgium Jeffreys benevolentia gard which we bear the said George 
prosequimur, eum inter pares hujus Jeffreys, are of opinion that he 
regni cooptandum esse censuimus. should be admitted amongst the 
Sciatis igitur, &c. &c l peers of this realm. Know, there- 
fore, &c. &c. 

He was created Baron Jeffreys of Wem, in the county 
of Salop. This title was derived from his property in 
that county. He held the barony of Wem, and the ma- 
nors of Wem and Loppington, besides other lands and 
tenements in those parts. Evelyn, who seems to have 
been on pretty good terms with every one, wished him 
joy on his creation; and he says, that the new peer was 
very civil upon the occasion. 

Whatever may be the real secret of the " horrid popish 
plot;" whether a real conspiracy to be executed with 
screwed guns and silver bullets ; (by the way, the ma- 
nagement was most clumsy; at one time the assassins had 
their flints loose, at another they charged their screwed 
guns with all bullets and no powder, then with no powder 
in the pan, and again with all powder and no bullets;) or 
whether it was a mere treasonable bauble to dazzle the 
eyes of the populace, — we of this day care very little : 



'From the original in the possession of James Bindley, Esq., F.A.S., 
given in Nichol's Leicestershire, Vol. ii. part 1, p. 116. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 131 



but it becomes our duty to mention Oates, 1 the great 
hero of the piece, in this place, since the day for expia- 
ting his unlucky jest upon Jeffreys was come: he stood at 
the King's Bench bar charged with perjury, the prince 
on the throne against whom he had whetted his tongue, 
and the judge on the bench whom he had stung with his 
untimely wit ; a judge too not given to be very impartial 
when he viewed his prisoner through the mirror of political 
hostility. However, an appearance of indifference and 
fairness was evinced by the court, till they found that 
Oates was resolute and stubborn in his defence ; and even 
then the rules of evidence were respected, and there was 
a little fracas between the chief and the King's counsel 
respecting them. But Jeffreys became very turbulent 
occasionally, and once his temper broke out beyond all 
discretion. Oates wished to know Lord Castlemaine's 
religion, and Sir George said, that every one knew that. 
But Oates would have it told in court, and, said he, 
"That's not the point, my lord; I must have it declared 
in evidence." 

Ld. Ch. Just. — I wonder to see any man that has the 
face of a man, carry it at this rate, when he has such an 
evidence brought in against him. 

Oates. — I wonder that Mr. Attorney will offer to bring 
this evidence ; men that must have malice against me. 



1 Oates, Bedlow, Dugdale, Prance, whose breath alone, 
Cou'd almost states subvert, and kings dethrone ! 
To sculp their shadow's in the pow'r of art : 
Ink may be black enough to act that part. 
Drawn to the life would you their souls behold, 
That work requires a more infernal mould. 

Memoirs of Titus Oates, 1688. 



132 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



Lcl. Ch. Just. — Hold your tongue ; you are a shame to 
mankind. 

Oates. — No, my lord, I am neither a shame to myself 
nor mankind. What I have sworn is true, and I will stand 
by it to my last breath, and seal it, if occasion be, with 
my blood. 

Ld. Ch. Just. — ' Tivere pity but that it were to be done 
by thy blood. 

A very sanguinary speech! but Oates did not regard 
it ; he went on wrangling for some time afterwards. 

The doctor (but Jeffreys could not endure that he should 
be called so) was convicted upon two indictments, and 
was visited with such floggings as might have made him 
wish himself most cordially within the pale of the Roman 
church with all her penance and stripes : he had such a 
punishment as should have chased perjury from England 
for a century afterwards, from the mere dread of it. 

1st. He was to pay a thousand marks upon each in- 
dictment. 

2d. To be stripped of all his canonical habits (a sen- 
tence which belongs only to the courts ecclesiastical.) 

3d. He was to stand twice in the pillory. 

4th. To be whipped from Aldgate to Newgate one 
day, and two days afterwards from Newgate to Tyburn. 

And 5th. He was to stand in the pillory on five days 
in every year as long as he lived. 

Yet, notwithstanding this, (and the sentence was exe- 
cuted with great severity,) "there are thousands," says 
his biographer in 1685, " of those unthinking, unconverted 
animals, that have that veneration still for their darling 
Titus, that they pay him even a wild Indian adoration, 
and make a god of the devil himself."' An unsuccessful 



LIFE OF -JEFFREYS. 133 



attempt was made to reverse this cruel judgment ; but he 
•was pardoned at the Revolution, and lived to publish 
several things afterwards. It is not a little singular that 
so slight a mention has been made of the harsh conduct 
of other judges during these times, whilst many of the 
chiefs, and Jeffreys among the number, have been set down 
for monsters, though all their brethren were doing the 
same thing. No doubt they cannot be excused; but the 
plea of communis error will avail much, when it is con- 
sidered that an age of faction is never remarkable for 
delicacy. In the trial which has been mentioned, Sir 
Francis Wythens, 1 a puisne judge, was full of these inde- 
cent railleries against the prisoner, and the close of his 
speech on passing sentence is very memorable: — "And 
I must tell you plainly, if it had been in my power to 
have carried it further, I should not have been unwilling 
to have given judgment of death upon you, for I am sure 
you deserve it." This Wythens was perpetually indulg- 
ing in levities and humour at the expense of prisoners. 
When Fernley was tried for treason, there was a specimen 
of this judge's propensity. A witness was called for the 
prisoner. Officer. "He is a great whig." — Judge Wy- 
thens. "If he be a whig he can't be a little one." — Wit- 
ness. "I formerly knew the man; he was a barber, and 
used to trim me. I always looked upon him to be a good, 

1 He was of no great value. Being called before the House of Com- 
mons to answer for his courtly opposition to petitioning, (for he was an 
abhorrer,) he cringed and sneaked, and said he knew he had done wrong, 
but feared to offend the king; on which, North tells us that even his own 
friends voted with the country party against him, and so he was unani- 
mously kicked out of the House. He was also excepted out of King 
William's act of indemnity. 

12 



134 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 

sober man." — Wythens. "AWapping man! a sober Wap- 
pingman!" Soon after he found room for a pun upon Trim- 
mers. The prisoner's witnesses were asked if they went 
to church. Wythens. " There were a parcel of them 
that went constantly to church trimmingly,." Even Chief 
Justice Jones, who, by comparison is highly estimated, 
was harsh on occasion; and on the trial of Alderman 
Cornish will be found not to have treated him too ten- 
derly. 

About this time Crispe, the common-serjeant, who, we 
may remember, dissolved the tumultuous common-hall by 
order of the court lord mayor, had the misfortune to dis- 
please Lord Jeffreys, and, though the particular nature 
of his offence has not been communicated to us, he fell 
under some censure, though he found means to withstand 
the prejudice against him, and to continue in office until 
his death. 1 He is spoken of with high praise by North. 

Hitherto we have abstained from speaking of the sub- 
ject of this memoir as a judge in civil matters; yet it has 
not been from a fear of exhibiting him in that capacity; 
since, however he might have been denied the reputation 
of legal knowledge by the furious and successful whigs 
of the revolution, it seems now pretty well agreed that 
he brought a considerable share of experience, and a very 
rare acuteness, to the Nisi Prius Bench. Indeed, through 
the diligence and fidelity of those learned and laborious 
men, who from time to time oblige us with the arguments 
and judgments which take place in our courts, the mem- 
bers of the law are enabled to form a fair estimate of the 
proficiency which the judges of Nisi Prius have attained 



1 About the year 1700, 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 135 



in the science. As far as relates to Jeffreys, we must 
have recourse to the reports of Sir Bartholomew Shower, 1 
and Mr. Skinner, 2 who wrote while he presided in the 
King's Bench; and to some parts of the "Modern Re- 
ports." Sir Bartholomew was recorder of London; and 
if Sir Robert Wright, the chief justice when the seven 
bishops were tried, is to have credit, the learned gentle- 
man was very fond of a speech, the judges at the same 
time not being over partial to too much oratory. Seve- 
ral counsel had been already heard in the case of the 
bishops, (a pruriency which perhaps will now receive a 
check in the Court of Chancery, if the new act be passed, 3 ) 

' Bartholomew Shower, brother to John Shower, an eminent divine, 
attained to considerable practice at the bar. He was constituted re- 
corder of London in 1687, in the room of Mr. Tate, who succeeded Sir 
John Holt. He was obliged to yield his place, in 1683, to Sir George 
Treby, when the city charter was restored; and Wood says that he stood 
in competition for the recordership, in 1691, with Sir John Hawles, who 
lost it. But the fact was, that as soon as Treby became chief justice of 
the Common Pleas, Sir Salathiel Lovell, afterwards baron of the Ex- 
chequer, succeeded to the city honours; and thus both must have been 
disappointed. He was Sir John Fenwick's counsel, and pleaded vehe- 
mently against the bill of attainder. In 1701 he died, and was buried 
at Harrow-on-the-hill. His publications were law reports and Pamph- 
lets. 

a Robert Skinner, father of Matthew Skinner, King's ancient serjeant, 
and chief justice of Chester, in 1742, who died in 1749. 

3 An act to amend the practice of the Court of Chancery, introduced 
at the end of the session of 1826 into the House of Commons. 

We cannot forbear inserting Lord Nottingham's elegant compliment 
to Mr. Somers, afterwards the Chancellor. Six or seven counsel had 
been heard to what was understood to be motion of course, when Mr. 
Somers rose, and said, " that he was of the same side ; but that so much 
had been already said, that he had no room to add any thing; that there- 
fore he would not presume to take up his lordship's time, by repeating 
what had been so well urged by the gentlemen that went before him." 



136 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 

when the recorder rose to speak to some point which had 
been started. Ld. Ch. Just. "What again? Well, go 
on, Sir Bartholomew Shower, if we musi have a speech." 
However, the learned counsel gave way ; but soon after, 
there being a pause till some one arrived who was to give 
evidence, the judge began his raillery again : — " Sir Bar- 
tholomew Shower, now we have time to hear your speech, 
if you will." Soon afterwards a great many more speeches 
were delivered, and Sir Bartholomew grew restive again ; 
"Will your Lordship be pleased to spare me one word?" 
— Ld. Ch. Just. " I hope we shall have done by and 
by." — Mr. Recorder. " If your lordship don't think fit, 
I can sit down." — Ld. Ch. Just. "No, no; go on, Sir 
Bartholomew Shower, you'll say I have spoiled a good 
speech." Then Serjeant Trinder began, "My lord, I 
have but one word." — Ld. Ch. Just. " How unreasonable 
is this now, that we must have so many speeches at this 
time of day ! But we must hear it; go on, brother !" 

But to return to Jeffreys. The reader need not be ap- 
prehensive that we are going to inflict a critical disquisi- 
tion on this judge's legal merits upon him ; no one doubts 
them at this day, as Serjeant Davy, of facetious memory, 
Said on the trial of Elizabeth Canning. "The chief jus- 
tice, with all his faults, has ever been esteemed a great 
lawyer." 

Two very remarkable occasions presented themselves 
whilst he remained on the common law bench, which gave 



" Sir," said the chancellor, " pray go on ; I sit here to hear every body. 
You never repeat, nor will you take up my time; and therefore I shall 
hear you with pleasure." It often happened in those days, that six, 
eight, or even ten advocates on 'a side were heard in the Court of Chan- 
cery. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 137 



him opportunities of displaying his learning and shrewd- 
ness to great advantage. The first is styled, par excel- 
lence, " the great case of monopolies :" the next was Lady 
Ivy's monstrous attempt to possess herself of valuable 
property in Shadwell, through the medium of false writings. 
In the latter case some little incidents happened, which 
we shall also give, as they tend to prove Jeffreys's near 
acquaintance with the world in small things. 

The East India Company quarrelled with Thomas 
Sandys for invading their exclusive right of trade; he 
said, that the "sea was open for all merchants to pass with 
their merchandises where they pleased, whereupon the 
company were pleased to demur, as it is technically 
called ; that is to say, they would not allow Mr. Sandys's 
plea to be a sufficient answer in point of law to their ac- 
tion, and they referred the decision to the Court of King's 
Bench. Jeffreys delivered a very elaborate judgment. 
He made two points: 1st. Was the grant good, which 
licensed the company to trade to the Indies to the ex- 
clusion of others ? Then, Was the action maintainable ? 
He began by complimenting the King for his condescen- 
sion in allowing his prerogative to be debated in West- 
minster-hall, thereby following the example of Lord Chief 
Baron Fleming. All things had their commencement by 
royal grant, so that an artificer in the city of London 
could not use two trades ; a carpenter could not be a 
joiner, nor a bricklayer a plasterer, &c, and yet there 
was more liberty for inland than foreign trade. For the 
law merchant prevailed in most matters of merchandise, 
especially when the goods were upon the high seas ; so 
that even by the allowance of the common law, a great 
difference was observable between the customs and rights 
12* 



133 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



of traders, and those of ordinary persons. Beyond ques- 
tion, it was a just measure of the prerogative to restrain 
foreign trade. Welwood's Epistle had been quoted, who 
spoke of vindicating the conservancy of the seas in fa- 
vour of all loyal traders: Westminster-hall was not the 
place for quoting epistles or authorities ; but Welwood 
doubtless little dreamed of interlopers, when he spoke of 
loyal subjects. Foreign trade being introduced by the 
laws of nations, ought to be governed and adjudged by those 
laws ; whence springs the Court of Admiralty. There- 
fore, as the restraint of such trade was ever reckoned 
inter jura regalia, and uncontrolled by any act of parlia- 
ment, and as it was agreeable to the law of nations, the 
royal prerogative was clearly efficient in the case at bar. 
Again, with regard to an injurious monopoly, which had 
been insisted on by the defendant's counsel, such would not 
be the case, for an exclusive privilege would only be 
granted upon good cause, and for the public advantage. 
The infancy of an undertaking like the present would be 
most effectually protected by a society, who, whilst they 
risked the possible loss, should be entitled to the undis- 
turbed profit. It was prohibited by the States-general, 
on pain of death, and forfeiture of ship and goods, that 
any, save the Dutch India Company, should for twenty- 
one years pass eastward of the Cape of Good Hope. And 
surely, continued the judge, the Dutch have ever been 
our greatest and most dangerous rivals in trade. The 
King, by his charter, makes the plaintiffs, as it were, his 
ambassadors to concert a peace with the Indians, and 
Mr. Sandys has complained that ho is not one of them. 
Because the King may pardon every offender, but will 
not pardon any highwayman now in Newgate, must those 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 189 



jail-birds, therefore, think themselves injured in their 
liberty and property? The most flourishing trades have 
begun by united stocks and policies. The company have 
been at the trouble of discovering places, of erecting forts, 
of keeping forces, of settling factories, and of making 
leagues and treaties ; and it would be against natural 
equity to wrest the benefits from them which they have 
thus earned. Let the plaintiff take his judgment. 1 

On the 3d of June, 1684, the claim of Lady Ivy for 
some property in Shadwell came to be investigated before 
a judge as intelligent and keen as ever enlightened the 
bench at Westminster, or a special jury assembled upon 
an occasion so important. She was in possession; the 
action, therefore, was brought against her, and it seems 
that the plaintiff had been once before unsuccessful. The 
judge plainly showed his disposition in the outset to sift 
the cause in penetralibus, and, accordingly, showed the 
counsel on either side very little mercy. They began 
with an old book found among the evidences of the dean 
and chapter of St. Paul's, in which some alteration had 
been made, the object of which did not appear. "It is 
plain," said the chief justice, "that in this slippery age 
we live in, it is very easy to make a book look as old as 
you would have it." Now the attorney-general, who 
conducted Lady Ivy's case, was shrewd enough to take 
advantage of this hint, and knowing that his was the side 
on which forgery was suspected, he declared, seemingly 



1 The other judges who concurred, were Sir Francis Wythens, Sir 
Richard Holloway, Sir Thomas Walcot. A paper in the Mss. Lansd. 
1210, folio, contains the introduction of Sir George Jeffreys's speech, 
which is not in the State Trials, but is otherwise imperfect. 



140 LIFE OF JEFFREY?. 



with much innocence, "They threaten us with forgeries, 
and I know not what; I believe it will be found on Mr. 
Neale's side." However, the tide was soon to turn 
against his client. Jeffreys fastened himself upon Lady 
Ivy's first witness ; and unless a man were the very image 
of truth, he had but little chance under such an ordeal. 
But here was a man who undertook to tell the contents 
of a deed he had never looked into, and who swore that 
he knew its owner on first finding it, from a superscription 
which was proved to have been written long afterwards. 
"I am sure," quoth the judge, "thou swearest wildly." 
And the next witness made so little account of time, that 
he veered so lamentably from one day to another as to 
draw upon him a most formidable lecture from the judge. 
And the solicitor-general was pleased to make this very 
polite address to the Lady Ivy, his client, then in court, 
— "Your witness is drunk, madam !" Every step in this 
cause was against the defendant ; and not only did the 
jury find a verdict disallowing her claims, but she had 
the misfortune to encounter two informations for forging 
and publishing indentures, which were very soon after- 
wards filed against her. The most ingenious device in 
this singular cause was a plan which suggested itself 
to a Mr. Bradbury for the development of these fraudu- 
lent^ practices. The indenture relied upon by Lady Ivy 
was stated as of such a day, in such years, " of the reigns 
of our Sovereign Lord and Lady Philip and Mary, by the 
Grace of God King and Queen of England, Spain, France, 
both Sicilies, Jerusalem, and Ireland, Defenders, &c. 
Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Burgundy, Milan, and 
Brabant, &c." Bradbury urged, and he brought re- 
cords in proof of his allegation, that Philip and Mary 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 141 



were never then called King and Queen of Spain and 
both the Sicilies, but King and Queen of Naples, and 
that Burgundy never stood before Milan. The judge was 
extremely pleased with the demonstration of this theory, 
while the attorney-general, who felt the shoe pinch, was 
vainly striving to silence an interloper so dangerous. 
However, the contriver of this detection was so much 
elated by the encouragement he met with, that he could 
not help interfering again on one or two occasions, which 
brought the wit of Jeffreys upon him, seasoned with that 
admirable knowledge of the world and of human nature, 
for which the judge has never had sufficient credit with 
posterity. Probably Mr. Bradbury had been diving into 
all the old rat-eaten records for days and nights before 
the trial; "for," cried he, "I dare affirm that there are 
none of the rolls of that year so till after Easter Term ;" 
and then he was stopped with " Lord, sir, you must be 
cackling too; we told you your objection was very in- 
genious, but that must not make you troublesome ; you 
cannot lay an egg but you must be cackling over it." 

Nor did the chief of the court use his brother judges 
with much greater respect, if he thought they deserved a 
lesson. We shall give an instance of this kind here in 
the treatment of Mr. Baron Gregory, 1 who was subpoenaed 
as a witness upon this occasion. When the learned baron 



1 William Gregory was chosen speaker of the house of Commons in 
1GG9, by the recommendation of Lord William Russell, the King abso- 
lutely refusing to confirm the nomination of Mr. Edward Seymour. In 
1G79, he was made a baron of the Exchequer, but made way for Jenner, 
the recorder of London, early in the reign of James II. Being a man of 
integrity, he was immediately placed judge of the King's Bench at the 
Revolution, and died in 1G9G. 



142 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



came into court, the counsel were pleased to behave very 
civilly to him, and proposed that he should be examined 
forthwith; whereupon Sir William, whose delicacy ex- 
ceeded his foresight, declared himself very unwilling to 
interrupt the course of the evidence. "Nay, we will 
take you at your word," said the chief, whose notions of 
such scruples were very contracted ; " but if it be long, 
pray remember we would have eased you, but you com- 
plimented yourself out of it; now you are likely to abide 
by it a while, I assure you, brother." The baron waited 
some considerable time, and his evidence at length was 
not wanted ; upon which he retired, with another friendly 
hint from the bench : " Well, brother, we cannot help 
your staying now; but remember you had an offer made 
you at first, and you are punished for refusing it." Here 
was a sure and sound principle in human life recognised 
by the chief justice, and false delicacy justly lashed. 

Yet, whatever respect he might have shown to the com- 
mon law, he had no prejudice in favour of settled forms ; 
and, indeed, it is an observation common to those times, 
that when a judge desired a precedent, he would have it. 
Jeffreys, the last of these worthies, was heard to say, that 
if there were no precedent for what he did, he did not 
see why he had not as good a right to make one as any 
of his predecessors. And, so little respect did he pay to 
the great oracle, Sir Edward Coke, that he used to stop 
the counsel who were wont to quote him, and gruffly tell 
them, that if Lord Coke had really said what they were 
urging, his opinion was not law. 

Had he, however, always persisted in establishing pre- 
cedents as honourable as his conduct to the mayor and 
corporation of Bristol, his name had been immortalized 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 143 



for philanthropy. A very roguish practice had obtained 
in that money-getting city. The mayor, aldermen, and 
justices, had been in the habit of selling their transported 
criminals for slaves into the American plantations ; and 
finding the barter very lucrative, they only regretted that 
crime was not more on the increase within their good ter- 
ritory. So they hit upon this expedient. When any 
little pilferers got into a scrape, all the horrors of hanging 
Avere held out to them ; and through the officers, who were 
creatures of the corporation, they were induced to pray 
for transportation; and then each alderman had his turn 
to sell one, about which, by the way, they sometimes quar- 
relled. Jeffreys knew how to protect the rights of men 
as well as any ; and having received a hint of this custom, 
which had passed unnoticed for years, he instituted an 
inquiry, whence it appeared that the mayor was equally 
criminal with the rest of his brethren. He gave out pub- 
licly to the citizens, that he had "brought a broom to 
sweep them." This was a crisis which exactly suited a 
man of our judge's temperament. There was no state 
policy to interfere with him, and even-handed Justice was 
therefore to be exalted in all her magnificence. Slowly, 
in all his scarlet and fur robes, did the chief magistrate 
descend from the bench of justice, by order of Jeffreys, 
and having reached the common bar, he stood there like 
a criminal to answer for his misdeeds. At first, indeed, 
he hesitated, and slackened his pace, but he was quickly 
overawed by the resolute chief, who, stamping, called for 
his guards, for he was "general by commission." And 
surely justice might have overtaken him and his friends, 
had not the Revolution introduced a general amnesty, by 
which the informations against these persons were can- 



144 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



celled. They had been compelled, however, to give large 
security that they would answer the charges, and doubt- 
less thought themselves amply fortunate to come off so 
easily, with all their unrighteous gains secure in their 
pockets. The mayor, Sir Robert Cann, was so much 
terrified, that he employed some friends in London to 
appease the great man, who at length yielded, saying, 
" Go thy way, sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto 
thee." 

Before we speak of the great western tragedy, the con- 
duct of this hot-headed judge to Richard Baxter, the cele- 
brated nonconformist, who refused the see of Lichfield 
and Coventry at the Restoration, shall be just adverted 
to. His real offence was expounding some passages of 
the New Testament in his paraphrase rather too strongly 
against the Roman religion, for which a prosecution was 
instituted against him as a seditious libeller of the Church 
of England bishops. The passages selected for the charge 
were picked out by Sir Robert L'Estrange and his com- 
panions. Baxter asked for time. — Jeffreys. " I will not 
give him a minute's more time to save his life. Yonder 
stands Oates in the pillory, and says he suffers for the 
truth; and so says Baxter; but if Baxter did but stand 
on the other side of the pillory with him, I would say, 
two of the greatest rogues and rascals in the kingdom 
stood there." On the 30th May, 1G84, he came to trial. 
"Wallop, Williams, Rothcram, 1 Atwood, and Phipps, 2 were 
his counsel. The clerk was reading the title of a cause. 



1 Afterwards a baron of the Exchequer. Evelyn mentions him as a 
trustee for Boyle's Lectures. 
a Afterwards Sir Constantino, and Chancellor of Ireland. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 145 



— "You blockhead you," cries the judge, "the next cause 
2 s between Richard Baxter and the King." Wallop said, 
that those who had drawn the information were the li- 
bellers, in attributing the defendant's words to the Eng- 
lish bishops, which he evidently meant for the Roman 
hierarchy. "Mr. Wallop," quoth my lord, "I observe 
you are in all these dirty causes ; and were it not for you 
gentlemen of the long robe, who should have more wit 
and honesty than to support and hold up these factious 
knaves by the chin, we should not be at the pass -we are 
at." — Wallop. "My lord, I humbly conceive that the 
passages accused are natural deductions from the text." 
Jeffreys. " You humbly conceive, and I humbly con- 
ceive! swear him! swear him!" Wallop went on again. 
Jeffreys. " Sometimes you humbly conceive, and some- 
times you are very positive : you talk of your skill in 
church history, and of your understanding Latin and Eng- 
lish ; I think I understand something of them as well as 
you ; but in short must tell you, that if you do not un- 
derstand your duty better, I shall teach it you." And 
this silenced Wallop, for he sat down. Then Rotheram 
began ; and Baxter added, that he had incurred the cen- 
sure of many dissenters on account of his moderation. 
"Baxter for bishops !" saith Jeffreys ; "that's a merry 
conceit indeed! turn to it, turn to it." On which Rothe- 
ram pointed out a place where Baxter had declared that 
great respect was due to those who were called to be 
bishops. But he was interrupted with, " Ay ! this your 
presbyterian cant ! truly called to be bishops ! that is him- 
self and such rascals called to be bishops of Kiddermins- 
ter, according to the saying of a late author, 'and every 
parish shall maintain a tithe pig metropolitan.' " Baxter 
13 



146 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



was beginning again, but — "Richard! Richard!" ejacu- 
lated the judge, " dost thou think we'll hear thee poison 
the court ? Richard, thou art an old fellow, an old knave ; 
thou hast written books enough to load a cart. Hadst 
thou been whipt out of thy writing trade forty years ago, 
it had been happy;" and with many other such observa- 
tions he closed his harangue, which had the effect of 
putting down Rotheram. But it was now Mr. Atwood's 
turn: and he was going to read some of the text. — " You 
shan't draw me into a conventicle with your annotations, 
nor your snivelling parson neither," exclaimed Sir George. 
However, Jeffreys met with his match, for the counsel 
would go on ; and so the one inveighed, and the other 
urged his client's defence, till he had made an end. And 
then the chief justice finished with — "Well, you have 
had your say." Williams and Phipps were quite con- 
founded, and so were silent ; and Baxter soon had his 
quietus also: on which Jeffreys turned to the jury: — 
" 'Tis notoriously known," said he, " that there has been 
a design to ruin the king and nation : the old game has 
been renewed, and this has been the main incendiary: he 
is as modest now as can be ; but time was, when no man 
was so ready at, 'Bind your Kings in chains, and your 
nobles in fetters of iron;' and, 'To your tents, Israel!' 
Gentlemen, for God's sake, don't let us be gulled twice 
in an age." Of course the jury found him guilty, and 
he was fined <£500, and bound to his good behaviour for 
seven years. But through the mediation of Lord Powis, 
a Roman Catholic nobleman, he had great kindness shown 
him : his fine was remitted, and he soon afterwards was 
left at liberty to preach, which he did to a separate con- 
gregation unto the day of his death, in December, 1691. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 147 



Here, however, is an opportunity of telling something 
much to the credit of Jeffreys, and the more so, because 
a dissenter is our theme. 

Philip Henry, a man of unblemished character, a non- 
conformist, had refused to pay a fine which some Shrop- 
shire justices had imposed upon him for attending a con- 
venticle ; upon which his goods were distrained, 1 and carts 
were even pressed upon the road for the purpose of car- 
rying them away. This minister was the only noncon- 
formist in Flintshire, which was Jeffreys' county; but he 
always remained unmolested, although this great foe to 
dissenters was chief justice of Chester, and came that 
circuit. And upon the occasion we have above mentioned, 
Sir George withheld his approbation of the measure, and 
even inquired jocularly, by what new law the gentry 
pressed carts to remove goods distrained for the offence 
of going to meeting. He spoke with respect of Mr. 
Henry, declared that he knew him and his character well, 
and that the preacher was his mother's great friend. 
Mrs. Jeffreys was a very pious, good woman ; and, as her 
son openly acknowledged, had sometimes requested Henry 
to examine him when a school-boy, who, moreover, was 
in the habit of commending his proficiency. There is 
something of filial regard and a respect for old acquain- 
tance in this. 

There is a stronger instance still of the judge's forbear- 
ance toward the same man. Mr. Henry was in the ha- 
bit of attending a meeting for prayer every Monday 
morning; and this assembly having created some notice, 
was mentioned very innocently to some person in London 

1 The conviction was certified from Shropshire into Flintshire. 



148 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



by means of a letter. This communication fell into tlic 
hands of a busy-body, or malignant of some kind, who 
laid an information against the writer and receiver of the 
letter, which greatly pleased Jeffreys, who imagined that 
it might be a branch of the presbyterian plot. He, ac- 
cordingly, "rallied the parties very severely;" and then 
it came out that the project had its rise with Mr. Henry, 
which occasioned the most serious fears for his safety. 
But the whole matter was suddenly dropped, and no in- 
quiry made, which astonished the vulgar ; whereas it only 
proves the consistency of Jeffreys when he knew that a 
man of high character was in the right, and remembered 
him in happy youthful days, of which the impressions are 
so kind and so lasting. 

When Jeffreys had left Mold (the assize town,) after 
the distraining we have talked of, the enemies of Mr. 
Henry began again, and presented him for keeping con- 
venticles ; but all the parchments against this favoured 
minister had been cast into the Dead Sea with as good 
success, for the chief justice frowned upon them, and they 
were never more heard of. It is proper that we should 
give Mr. Henry's opinion of this mercy. His son, Mat- 
thew, who wrote his life, says, that he "acknowledged the 
hand of God, who turneth the hearts of the children of 
men, as the rivulets of water." 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 149 



CHAPTER VI: 

The Western Assizes — Duke of Monmouth's invasion— Special com- 
mission, and Jeffreys at the head of it — Countess of Pomfret — The 
Bloody Assizes, so called — The number executed — Trial and execu- 
tion of Lady Alicia Lisle — Henry Pollexfen, afterward lord chief jus- 
tice — Conduct of Jeffreys — Cruel promise of James II. — Salisbury — 
Church service at Dorchester — Intemperate speeches of the judge — 
Many transported or sold as slaves — Weakness of the Monarch — Case 
of Battiscomb — Sentence for the whipping of Tutchin — Trials at Exe- 
ter — State of the West during this assize — Cruelties at Taunton — Lord 
Stawell's indignation — Warrant to the mayor of Bath — Boasts of Judge 
Jeffreys — Further executions — Bishop Ken— The judge's charge to the 
grand jury at Bristol — Anecdote — Case of the brothers "Spekes" — 
Tory Tom's shrewdness — Dr. Oliver — Edmund Prideaux — Enormous 
bribe paid to save his life — Reception of Jeffreys at court — Anecdotes 
of Colonel Kirk — The Dissenters — Observations on the character of 
James II. and Judge Jeffreys — Execution of the Duke of Monmouth — 
Mrs. Gaunt burnt — The Lords Grey, Stamford, and Brandon Gerrard 
are pardoned — Bigotry of the King — Lord Jeffreys is appointed lord 
chancellor — Trial of Hampden before Sir Edward Herbert — Danger- 
field killed in a private quarrel— Satire on Jeffreys. 

Every one is familiarized with the history of Mon- 
mouth's invasion in the early part of the second James's 
reign, with his fallen fortunes, his luckless capture, and 
his much lamented fate. To punish his adherents, a spe- 
cial commission was issued by the crown, at the head of 
which was placed Lord Jeffreys, and, in addition to his 
rank as prime judge, he had, by a second commission, 
the authority of general. 

The conduct, moreover, of this powerful minister in the 
execution of his dangerous trust, is, as it were, natural- 
ized in our minds, and, perhaps, it cannot be very much 
13* 



1 50 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



palliated ; although we do not profess to he governed by 
the raving invectives of historians, or the teeming abuse 
of copying scribes. For the foregoing reason, therefore, 
the reader shall be but scantily troubled with stories 
which he can trace the mention of from his childhood, 
and, consequently, the severity of executions, the dying 
speeches and confessions, the clamours of distressed re- 
latives, and, above all, the lugubrious dirges of contem- 
porary writers, will be rarely introduced. 

We have no concern with the fury of the famous little 
ale-house woman in the west, whose rage kindled instant- 
ly at the name of Jeffreys ; a passion, be it said, en pas- 
sant, which she caught from a mother, who was an eye- 
witness of that dreadful personage ; nor with that tena- 
cious feeling of the rabble which urged them to insult the 
Countess of Pomfret, granddaughter to their hated judge, 
when passing on the western road. 1 

Possibly, Sir Bartholomew Shower's mode of treating 
the subject might be, after all, the best: it is excellent 
for its brevity. " In Trinity term Monmouth's rebellion 
in the west prevented much business; in the vacation fol- 
lowing, by reason of that rebellion, there was no assize 
held for the western circuit; but afterwards five judges 
went as commissioners of oyer and terminer and jail- 
delivery, and 351 of the rebels ivere executed^ &c. 

Something, however, for the sake of justice or huma- 
nity, must be said concerning these three hundred and 
fifty-one 2 persons ; and something for the judge's sake, 

1 We might add, nor with poets; especially when they write thus : 

" This demy-fiend, this hurricane of man, 
Was sent to butcher all i' th' west he can." 

2 Some boolcs speak of 2- r )1, but the number is differently stated from 
H30 to 350. 



LTFE OF JEFFREYS. 151 



whether he were the avenger of sedition, or the brutal 
navigator in a sea of blood. 

In the autumn of 1685, Jeffreys went forth, guarded 
by a party of Colonel Kirk's soldiers, taking with him, as 
his assistants, the lord chief baron, 1 and three puisne 
judges ; 2 although it may be said, that these last were 
mere ciphers, for all the fierce deeds are imputed to the 
chief, and all the odium rests singly upon him. He acted 
up to his commission, gave daily the word and orders for 
going the rounds, and ordered what party of troops he. 
pleased to attend him. 

Winchester was the first place where the ministers of 
justice halted ; for here was the Lady Alicia Lisle await- 
ing her trial, — a very obnoxious lady, for her husband 
had been no other than the great John L'Isle, 3 one of 

1 William Montague, Esq. He was one of the judges whom James 
turned out afterwards for resisting his attempted power of dispensation. 
He lived in retirement to a great age; and from his known uprightness 
of character, it is to be presumed that he had little share in these scenes 
of blood. 

■ One of whom was Sir Robert Wright, a baron of the Exchequer, and 
afterwards chief justice of the King's Bench at the trial of the seven bi- 
shops. He was one of the true butcher-birds, and was the man who 
promised to hang the poor soldier for deserting his colours upon Houns- 
low-heath, if he were promoted, which was done by moving Sir Edwaid 
Herbert, and the promise was performed. Judge Jenner was another. 

3 He was son of Sir William Lisle, Knt., of Wootton, Isle of Wight ; 
went to Magdalen Hall, and thence to the Temple, and soon distinguished 
himself at the bar. He was returned for Winchester in 1640, and be- 
came master of the hospital of St. Cross near that city, which he gave 
up to Mr. Solicitor Cook in 1649. Jeffreys told his wife pretty clearly 
how well his presence at the condemnation of King Charles was remem- 
bered. He was one of the council of state, some time president of the 
high court of justice, and was very instrumental in making Oliver the 
lord protector. He was excepted out of the act of oblivion at Ihe Re- 
storation, and fled into Switzerland, where, at Lausanne, he had great 



152 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



King Charles the First's judges, a zealous republican, 
some time lord president of the high court of justice, and 
joint commissioner of the great seal. Her offence was 
the harbouring one John Hicks, an alleged traitor, who 
was hung afterwards at Glastonbury, and who fled for 
shelter after the defeat of the duke. One of the most 
singular incidents, however, which accompanied this trial, 
was the appearance of Henry Pollexfen, 1 as counsel for 
the crown. This lawyer had been deep in the confidence 
.of the country party, or according to North, "in all the 
desperate designs against the crown," and yet was se- 
lected for the King's advocate upon this emergency; and, 
which is yet more strange, consented to the employment. 
Fanatic as he is called, he had contrived hitherto to pre- 
serve a great character for consistency; and in spite of 
his new retainer, was made chief justice of the Common 
Pleas on the accession of King William. 2 

respect paid him, and was treated as chancellor of England, being clothod 
with the robe of that high officer. In 1664, some Irishmen, angry at his 
kind reception on the continent, thought proper to shoot him with a mus- 
quetoon, whereupon he was honourably buried. 

1 Henry Pollexfen, or Polixphen, was a native of Devonshire, the fa- 
mily being settled at Kitley, near Plympton. His business at the bar 
was very steady and considerable ; and it is observable, that he was in 
all the principal cases in the latter part of Charles the Second's, and in 
the succeeding reign. In 1688 he was returned for Exeter, and at the 
Revolution made attorney-genera!, whence he was presently removed 
to be chief justice of the Common Pleas. He died in 1692. Roger 
North calls him " the veriest butcher of a judge;" but Burnet vouches 
for his honesty. He was the author of some Reports. 

a The conciliation of Pollexfen upon this occasion was no indifferent 
stroke of policy, since the writers who have undertaken to defend the 
conduct of King James, rely upon that lawyer's appointment to be the 
crown counsel, as a proof that the monarch wished to adopt a course of 
moderation. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 153 



But to return : Ilicks and one Nelthorp, both of Rye- 
house Plot notoriety, were found in the house of the pri- 
soner under these circumstances : they had escaped from 
Weston Moor, and entreated an asylum at the hands of 
Lady Alice. When the application was made to her, 
she entertained it with great civility, being entirely igno- 
rant of the route which her guests had taken. Hicks 
either had the candour or the temerity to acquaint her 
with the truth, on which she instantly despatched her 
principal servant to a justice of the peace with informa- 
tion concerning them, but gave especial orders that they 
might be suffered to escape. At this crisis a party en- 
tered, and made the fatal discovery. Jeffreys, bitter foe 
as he ever showed himself to the dissenters, was trans- 
ported with rage beyond himself at this trial ; for, in ad- 
dition to a prisoner who had been harbouring dissenters, 
he had a very reluctant presbyterian witness to deal with. 
It would seem, in fact, that this judge had worked him- 
self up to a lunatic pitch of frenzy against nonconform- 
ists, and that he could scarcely be said to command his 
senses when one of such a persuasion was brought before 
him. And yet he displayed his usual knowledge of men's 
characters by the use of many religious admonitions, and 
even imprecations of the divine wrath against liars, which 
greatly tended to alarm the presbyterian witness, who 
in reality did shuffle in his testimony for the purpose of 
screening the culprit, but was entirely mastered by the 
chief justice. The expressions used towards him were 
such as he would be most likely to have heard in the 
places of worship which his creed taught him to attend, 
and the repetition of them in so awful a place as a court 
of justice would render them the more formidable to his 
mind. 



154 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



One part of Jeffreys's conduct at the trial has been 
strongly reprobated. He told the jury that Nelthorp 
had privately informed him of the whole conversation 
which took place between the prisoner, Hicks, and him- 
self, when they were together at supper. And although 
it might have been a very flat and just contradiction of 
the witness, who was then swearing most outrageously 
for his mistress, the judge had clearly no right to men- 
tion it from the bench. "I would not mention any such 
thing as any piece of evidence to influence this case," said 
he; but the jury must have been shamefully biassed by 
such a statement, because the Lady Lisle was clearly 
made out to have been cognizant of the rebellious de- 
signs of those she sheltered, by evidence of that conver- 
sation. 

The Lady Lisle said, that had she been tried in Lon- 
don, several persons of quality would have testified how 
strongly she had condemned the rising of Monmouth ; 
that she had shed more tears for King Charles than any 
woman; that she apprehended the object of Hicks's visit 
to be no more than an anxiety to escape the general war- 
rant against nonconformists; and that her son was ac- 
tually in arms against the rebels through her advice. 

The good woman, seventy years of age, is said to have 
slept during great part of the charge to the jury; and, 
beyond doubt, she was well prepared for the scene which 
was to follow, and well apprized of her judge's outrageous 
prejudice. But the jury betrayed a feeling which did 
them some credit. They asked, whether the prisoner 
could be found guilty of concealing a person who had not 
been convicted of any offence, for Hicks was not as yet 
tried; and a very sensible question it was. Jeffreys said, 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 155 



it made no difference, and this opinion of his was one 
ground for reversing the judgment after the Revolution. 
However, the jury were still dissatisfied; they thought 
that there had been no proof of Lady Lisle's knowledge 
that Hicks had been in the army. Nothing more palpa- 
ble, according to the judge's opinion; and at length the 
death-sealing verdict was obtained. 1 

" If I had been among you, and she had been my own 
mother, I should have found her guilty," said the satiated 
Jeffreys, who now had his victim bound to the horns of 
the altar; and then he passed judgment on her, in com- 
mon with the other criminals who had been capitally con- 
victed at the assizes. Moreover, the sheriff was ordered 
to prepare for her execution on that afternoon ; but Jef- 
freys threw out this hint, " We that are the judges shall 
stay in town an hour or two. You," addressing himself 
to the prisoner, "shall have pen, ink, and paper brought 
you; and if, in the mean time, you employ that pen, ink, 
and paper, and this hour or two well (you understand 
what I mean,) it may be you may hear further from us, 
in a deferring the execution." This intimation might 
have been applied to a discovery of more state-prisoners, 
or it is possible that the great man looked keenly for a 
bribe. For, although writers may have been incorrect 
in attributing venality to our chief justice upon all occa- 
sions, it must be confessed that he began a system of 
corruption on this circuit, to say the least ; and being 



1 Oldmixon, in his History of the House of Stuart, tells us that the jury- 
brought her in twice "Not guilty ;" and Rapin says that this happened 
three times; and further, that Jeffreys threatened an attaint of jury: 
the report, however, in the State Trials, is widely at variance with this 
aggravated statement, and Hume adopts the more moderate story. 



156 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



himself originally without an estate, now spared no means 
of acquiring one. 

At the intercession of some Winchester clergymen, the 
lady was respited for a few days ; and it was revenge, 
probably, at his pecuniary disappointment, that induced 
the inexorability of Jeffreys against petitions for a final 
reprieve. There was, however, one more turnpike-gate, 
before the aged prisoner had fully arrived at the close of 
her sufferings. Access to the throne was ostensibly 
open; and very considerable interest was made at court 
to preserve so blameless a life. One thousand pounds 
were offered to Lord Feversham, the King's general, if 
he should succeed in saving her; and the noble lord went 
to His Majesty, and begged her life, but heard from the 
mouth of royalty, that the King had promised Jeffreys 
not to pardon her. 

Although this latter story comes from Burnet, who, in 
spite of his vivid phraseology and occasional want of cor- 
rectness, has been more and more confirmed of late in 
his principal statements, James's want of clemency has 
been established by other accounts. When he was peti- 
tioned for a reprieve by two tory peeresses, 1 he declared 
that he would not respite her for one day ; and these 
news we have from one who was bent upon excusing the 
whole transaction; 2 and we are assured again, that Jef- 
freys had acquainted His Majesty that Lady Lisle's pre- 
tensions to loyalty were feigned. She was accordingly 
beheaded 3 as soon as her brief respite expired, declaring, 

1 Lady St. John and Lady Abergavenny. 

3 The author of the " Caveat." 

3 Mr. James Macpherston would have us believe that no application 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 157 



with her dying breath, that the judge omitted to recount 
her defence to the jury, which, indeed, was but too true. 
Her guests, Nelthorp and Hicks, soon followed. When 
Hicks's brother, then dean of Worcester, was importuned 
on behalf of his relation, it is said he coldly answered, 
that "he could not speak for a fanatic." Some intem- 
perate expression might have fallen from that very 
learned and religious man, 1 but a total want of feeling is 
highly improbable, since his brother acknowledges, in a 
letter written just before his death, that the dean was 
gone up to London to see what could be done for him. 

The only disquisition, (and that as short as need be,) 
to which we feel disposed to ask the reader's patient at- 
tention, is, whether the chief justice did actually incur 



was ever made to the King for a pardon; and he attributes the changing 
of her sentence* to Jeffreys. This, however, is a prerogative which the 
King has always exercised in person, and there are many authorities 
which prove that a request for mercy reached the highest quarter, and 
that it failed, though the causes of that failure be variously represented. 
* George Hicks, dean of Worcester, the author of " Jovian," was a 
very learned, but intolerant man. He indirectly reflected upon Til lot- 
son, whose pupil, Edmund Prideaux, was supposed to have been impli- 
cated in the rebellion of 1685, as though the divine were answerable for 
his pupil's future prejudices; not reflecting, at the same time, that his 
own brother had suffered for the same fault. He could not take the 
oaths at the Revolution, and therefore was ejected from his deanery. 
William Talbot, kinsman to the Earl of Shrewsbury, was his successor. 
Hicks was, moreover, a very considerable author. 



* From burning to beheading, not hanging, according to Mr. Macpherson. This 
gentleman has another incorrect passage in a page or two after the above statement ; 
for he says that the unhappy Mrs. Gaunt was tried before Sir Edward Herbert, who 
was, in fact, a mild, clement man ; whereas chief justice Jones presided at the trial, 
and treated the prisoner with a severity as fully deserving of censure as any violences 
of the Lord Jeffreys ; and, which was worse, he mixed insidiousness wilh his beha- 
viour. But this Jones had established a character for honesty, and thus escaped the 
lash of the whig writers, and the traditional anger of historians. 

14 



158 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



an undivided responsibility respecting the career which 
he pursued against the western malefactors; or, whether 
he was the instrument, willing enough it may be, of his 
Royal Master. This very serious inquiry shall be post- 
poned a little, while Ave proceed in the history, or, as 
lawyers would say, go the circuit. 

Having despatched their business at Winton, the judges 
advanced to Salisbury, where their proceedings were so 
light, in comparison of the memorable punishments then 
in immediate prospect, that they might almost have de- 
manded the pair of white gloves, the pure and innocent 
emblem of a maiden assize. 1 Some few of the rebel 
whigs were whipped and imprisoned, but there was no 
political execution. 2 

The good people of Salisbury have not to this day for- 
gotten the remarkable loyalty which was manifested by 
their townsmen in this struggle, as they reason from the 
sparing of blood within their city ; and truly,, it is no 
small confirmation of their professed love for the then 
sceptred monarch, that King James was no way back- 
ward to trust himself within their walls at the commence- 
ment of his troubles. The only set-off against their claim 
is, that Jeffreys had made Dorchester his head-quarters, 
and that he had been gleaning prisoners from the time 
he first entered Hampshire, whom he carried along with 
him like oxen to a general slaughter-house, as the enemies 
of our judge would say. 

1 A maiden assize is said to be, when there is not a single prisoner for 
trial at a circuit town. 

a According to one account, there was a single execution at Salisbury; 
but by another, no prisoner was there indicted for high treason. Possi- 
bly the execution might have taken place for some other offence. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 159 

And now the fearful cavalcade moved on to Dorches- 
ter, where the first great thunderbolt was destined to 
fall on the ill-fated sons of rebellion. These might in- 
deed say: 

Omnes eodem cogimur, omnium 
Versatur urna, serius, ocyus 
Sors exitura, et nos in sternum 
Exilium impositura cymboe. 1 

which may be thus paraphrased: 

"We are all in a trap at the mercy of the same man; 
for each of us he shakes his raffle ; and sooner or later 
will the lot leap forth, the signal of our journey on the 
sledge to an eternal exile." 

It is customary for the judges to attend divine service 
before they proceed to the business of an assize town, 
and Jeffreys was not the man to neglect a ceremonial so 
customary, as well as so imposing; for he would, if possi- 
ble, do all things with due form. 

It was on Friday, the 4th of September, that he pro- 
ceeded to St. Mary Dorchester, having opened his com- 
mission on the preceding day. Here the clergyman 
spoke of mercy; but it was observed that the Lord Jef- 
freys laughed both during prayers and sermon; 2 a pretty 



1 Thus all must tread the path of fate; 

Thus ever shakes the mortal urn, 
Whose lot embarks us, soon or late. 

On Charon's boat, ah ! never to return. 

Fkancis. 

2 One is irresistibly reminded of the fine pictures which the " Great 
Unknown " has given us of the famous Claverhouse and General Dalzell, 
just before the battle of Bothwell Brig. Henry Morton had gone out to 
propose terms on behalf of the covenanters to the gentle Duke of Mon- 
mouth; Colonel Claverhouse (afterwards Viscount Dundee,) and General 



100 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



plain sign that he was (according to the singular conceit 
of an old writer,) about to "breathe death like a destroy- 
ing angel, and to sanguine his very ermins in blood." 

The minister finished, and the chief went forth, inocu- 
lated (as we shall prove hereafter) with the royal unc- 
tion, and attended by his judicial brethren. The court 
was hung with red cloth, "a colour suitable to such a 
succeeding bloody tragedy," as our writer says; and in 
due time their lordships entered with the flower of the 
west, the gentry of Dorset, Somerset, and Devon. Then 
came the charge to the grand jury, a vehement and ear- 
piercing harangue, which astonished and alarmed all who 
heard it, cognizant as they must have been of the man's 
character who was addressing them. Not only after 
"principals" was their most strict inquiry to be bent, 
but after "aiders and abettors." And who might not 
have been an "aider or abettor?" for the jury had shel- 
tered many of their relations, which made them acces- 
saries to high treason after the fact. The court then 
adjourned until eight the next morning. 



Dalzell (a guest, by the way, of James Duke of York,) stood beside the 
Duke. The Duke received the terms with courtesy. " Here Morton 
observed Dalzell shake his head indignantly, and whisper something into 
Claverhouse's ear, who smiled in return, and elevated his eye-brows, but 
in a degree so slight as scarce to be perceptible." The Duke dismisses 
the plenipotentiary with these words: "I earnestly entreat," speaking 
of the answer, " it may be such as to save the effusion of blood." "At 
this moment another smile of deep meaning passed between Dalzell and 
Claverhouse. ' Yes, gentlemen,' repeated the Duke, 'I said I trusted 
the answer might be such as would save the effusion of blood. I hope 
the sentiment neither needs your scorn, nor incurs your displeasure !' 
Dalzell frowned, but made no answer. 'It is not for me to judge the 
propriety of your Grace's sentiments,' said Claverhouse, his lip just 
curled with an ironical smile. The subsequent carnage was immense." 
— Tales of My Landlord. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 1G1 



The panic-struck jury, moulded, as it were, to the will 
of the court by the well-timed threats which had been 
held out, soon found bills of indictment against thirty 
persons ; and in the course of the assizes they implicated 
more than three hundred in the great transaction. But 
does the reader imagine that it had ever been the inten- 
tion of Jeffreys to give all his prisoners the benefit of a 
long and patient hearing ? Well did that sagacious lawyer 
calculate that he might have sat in judgment until the 
spring assizes if he had been vexed with the " say" of all 
these unhappy men. Now, therefore, came the ruse de 
guerre. He held out the white flag, and proclaimed that, 
"if any one of them there indicted would relent from their 
conspiracies, and plead guilty to the same, they should 
find him to be a merciful judge." It is very important 
just to mention here that which we shall show rather more 
at large presently, that the kind of people who were to 
be dealt with were such as by no means inclined to "re- 
lent from their conspiracies;" they were men of con- 
spicuous hardihood and resolute daring, even while the 
cloud of death was overshadowing them. 

But, moreover, that there might be menace as well as 
encouragement, the prisoners were informed, at the same 
time, that those who put themselves on their trials should, 
if found guilty, have very little time to live ; indeed, Jef- 
freys did not scruple to say, at once, that their confes- 
sions would save him trouble. And the matter was after- 
wards managed in this way: two officers took a list of the 
accused, and went to them with the sister promises of 
pardon or execution; and as many were induced to accept 
the proffered mercy, these officers were in a condition to 
appear as witnesses of their confession, (as the law was 
14* 



1 G2 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



then administered,) in the case of their retracting. This 
artifice was not forgotten when the judge was lampooned 
some years after as a fallen chancellor, to the tune of 
"Hey, brave popery!" 

The prisoners to plead to his lordship did cry, 
But still he made answer, and thus did reply: 
We'll hang you up first, and then after we'll try, 
Sing hey, brave Chancellor! O fine Chancellor! 
Delicate Chancellor ! O ! 

However, the first thirty, not so easily caught by the 
sham bleating of the wolf, were minded to venture upon 
the defensive, and so they pleaded not guilty. The result 
of this boldness is soon told. It was on Saturday that 
these prisoners came to the bar, and the same evening 
Jeffreys signed a warrant to hang thirteen on the Mon- 
day following, which was punctually performed. The 
rest followed very soon afterwards, save one Saunders, 
who had been acquitted for want of evidence. But it is 
not to be supposed that all these died without a word of 
supplication to save their lives, nor that they were con- 
victed without an effort to procure a different verdict. 
There was a constable of Chardstock who, having some 
money in his hands for the use of the militia, was deprived 
of it by the Duke's friends, and this was his offence. The 
evidences against him were a woman of bad fame, and a 
catholic, whose house had been searched for arms by 
Monmouth's party. The prisoner objected to the testi- 
mony. "Villain ! rebel !" exclaimed the judge, "methinks 
I see thee already with a halter about thy neck;" and 
lie was ordered especially to be hung the first. Very 
considerable interest was made to preserve Matthew 
Bragg, an attorney, whose crime was walking home with- 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 16< 



out his horse, of -which the rebels had deprived him, and 
thus became an aider and abettor according to the then 
prevailing construction. People of the best quality sought 
a reprieve, and even a respite of ten days for him ; but 
he was put to death on the Monday, in company with the 
twelve others who have been mentioned. Jeffreys, indeed, 
was disposed to be facetious, for he jestingly declared, 
"that if any lawyer or parson came in his way, they 
should not escape him." This might be a jocose saying, 
but it was no joke, for the judge kept his word. 

The business now proceeded, but the great point which 
Jeffreys aimed at was gained. He had intimidated the 
culprits, who pleaded guilty by dozens ; but the ire of their 
judge was kindled, so that their time-saving plea stood 
them in little stead. 

Two hundred and ninety-two received judgment to die, 
besides the sacred band of thirty ; and of the second batch 
seventy-four 1 were consigned to the hangmen of Dor- 
chester, Bridport, Lyme, Sherborne, &c. The remainder 
were transported, severely whipped, or imprisoned. In- 
deed, the most extraordinary whippings which Jeffreys 
ordered were little thought of at the instant amidst the 
more heavy inflictions of justice. Many of the transports 
were sold for slaves. The whole county was adorned 
with the gibbeted quarters of the factious, which were 
distributed up and down as was thought expedient. 

Yet the principal terrorist was indulging himself in 
luxuries during these alarms, solaced by the company of 
his favourites, who were keen in discovering the sources 
from whence they might, jackal-like, bring plunder to 



Some accounts say eighty-seven. 



164 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 

their lion. The fountain of mercy fell in muddy drops. 
There was one John Lawrence, Avho managed an estate 
near Dorchester; the Duke of Monmouth's .party came 
and took three horses from his care, on which he remon- 
strated with that nobleman, and at last recovered one. 
The giving up of the two others was deemed an abetting, 
and so he was drawn into the plot. Jeffreys would have 
had his master in the scrape ; but that being impractica- 
ble, this poor fellow, who had the temerity to stand his 
trial, was ordered to be hung at Wareham ; and surely so 
it would have happened but for one of the judge's cour- 
tiers, who found that money was to be had, and who got 
a reprieve upon the payment of 200Z. down, and a security 
by bond for 200/. more. 

After all, the greatest hardship which befell any man 
at these assizes was the sad end of a Major Holmes, who 
suffered at Lyme. He had lost one of his sons in the 
battle, and an arm besides, 1 when he was captured, and 
brought up to London. King James, as Father Orleans 
acquaints us, desired to see him; and the prisoner boldly 
said upon the interview, that it would be more advantage- 
ous for the King's reputation to grant him his life, than 
beneficial to himself to receive it. "No one was more fre- 
quently in the King's antechamber," till he was sent down 
into the west as a kind of king's evidence, (at least Father 
Orleans would have it so,) for the purpose of pointing out 
the fittest objects for mercy or for punishment, that he 
might "doe some service ere he rec'eiv'd his pardon." 

1 Which he himself is said to have struck off in a kitchen immediately 
after the battle. He is called Colonel Holmes in the accounts of the 
condemned persons, and is probably the same with Major Holmes, who 
was engaged with Argyle in Scotland in the same cause. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 165 

Other accounts state that Jeffreys caused him to be pri- 
vately seized ; but certain it is, that he was hanged ; and the 
King, according to the biographer just mentioned, called 
Jeffreys into judgment for this harsh act, but was soon 
satisfied perforce on the ground of necessary justice, 
which " the King having made him judg of, knew not 
how to contradict." 

We have seen that Jeffreys was once captivated by a 
woman's generosity; but he had learned a most cruel 
disregard of the fair as he advanced in life, of which the 
second Lady Jeffreys might, to be sure, have been partly 
the occasion, as we shall see by and by. Mr. Battiscomb, 
a man of very tolerable estate and engaging manner, was 
so ill-fated as to become an inmate of Dorchester jail, 
and so ill-advised as to defend the equity of his cause, 
which had like to have choked Jeffreys, who furiously 
ordered him to a place of execution, there "to be hung 
by the neck till he should be dead." All the ladies in 
Dorchester were interested in the fate of the young man, 
who, by the way, when the judge's fit was over, had offers 
of life made him on the condition of his betraying some 
friends, which he resolutely repelled; and thus, having 
shut out the last hope of mercy, had become doubly an 
object of admiration: several girls, one especially, went 
to Jeffreys, and asked his life, but he is said to have re- 
pulsed them quite en brute. 1 

There are some lines written upon this unhappy dam- 



1 Ralph, in his review of James the Second's reign, gives a story 
•which is too gross to repeat here. It is a most brutal reply of Jeffreys 
to this young lady. Page 892 of Ralph. 



166 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



sel, and some of them sufficiently curious. 1 The prisoner 
suffered at Lyme, and his character is thus given us : "All 
that knew or saw him, must own Mr. Battiscomb was 
very much a gentleman. Not that thin sort of animal 
that nutters from tavern to playhouse, and hack again, 



1 A poem on a lady that came to my lord chief justice to beg Mr. Bat- 
tiscomb's life, sister to one of the sheriffs in the west, which he denied. 

Harder than thine own native rocks, 

To let the charming Silvia kneel, 

And not one spark of pity feel : 
Harder than senseless stones and stocks ! 
Ye gods ! what showers of pearls she gave ! 
What precious tears ! enough to save 
A bleeding monarch from the grave. 

By every hapless virgin curst : 

Winter blasts not more unkind, 

Deaf as the rugged northern wind ; 
By some Welsh wolf in murders nurst. 
Hast thou eyes'? or hast thou none? 
Or are they worse than marble grown ? 
Since marbles weep at Silvia's moan. 

Rebels stiff, and supple slaves, 

All the frantic world divide; 

One must stoop, and t'other ride; 
Cringing fools and factious knaves : 
Tho' falling on the loser's part, 
Gently Death arrests my heart, 
And has in honey dipt his dart. 

Life, farewell ! thou gaudy dream, 

Painted over with grief and joys, 

Which the next short hour destroys ; 
And drowns them all in Lethe's stream. 
What blest mortal would not die, 
Might he with me embalmed lye, 
In precious tears from Silvia's eye! 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 167 



all his life made of wig and cravat, without one dram of 
thought in his composition ; but one who had solid worth, 
&c. His body made a very handsome and creditable 
tenement for his mind; and 't had been pity it shou'd 
have liv'd in any other;" and so on. 

Here is another instance of the judge's brutality to 
females. Two persons named Hewling were among the 
condemned at Taunton, who had two sisters, and they 
hung upon the state coach imploring mercy at his hands; 
whereupon the incensed magistrate bade his coachman 
lash their fingers with his whip. And he moreover re- 
fused one of these sisters a respite of two days only for 
her brothers, though she offered him one hundred pounds 
for that little favour. 1 

The miseries which were inflicted upon the inhabitants 
of this county shall be concluded with an account of a 
most horrible sentence of whipping which was pronounced 
upon one Tutchin, a young man of Hampshire. This 
fellow (who, after all, was but a saucy rogue, 2 ) appeared 
to a charge of rebellion under the assumed name of 



1 Sir John Dalrymple has confounded those Hewlings with one Simon 
Hamling, of whom we shall presently speak. — See his Memoirs, p. 78. 
a This person was a great promoter of sedition by his writings. He 
was tried in the reign of Queen Anne for a libel published in 1703, in 
his " Observator," but escaped, through some legal difficulties which 
were started after the verdict. He died in 1707, through some violence 
which his scurrility had brought upon him. — See Touhnin's Tau?iton by 
Savage, p. 510, in the note. 

Careless, on high, stood unabash'd De Foe, 
And Tutchin, flagrant from the scourge, below. 

Dunciad. 
This man had the assurance to visit Jeffreys in the Tower, after his 
disgrace. 



168 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



Thomas Pitts, 1 and was acquitted for want of evidence. 
This happened at Taunton ; but as Tutchin was a man 
of Dorset, and was to be punished in that county, we 
mention him here. Jeffreys soon found out his true 
name, and asserted, that "he was never so far out- 
witted by a young or old rogue in his life." He then tried 
to fish out of Mr. Tutchin the names of some of his con- 
federates, but failed; upon which he grew furious, and 
not being able to hang him, issued forth the following 
sentence: "Imprisonment for seven years, and once a 
year to be whipped through all the market-towns in 
Dorsetshire: to be fined one hundred marks, and find 
security for his good behaviour during life." This was 
a blow indeed; and the ladies in court immediately burst 
into tears; but Jeffreys called out, "Ladies, if you did 
but know what a villain this is, as well as I do, you would 
say that this sentence is not half bad enough for him." 
And the clerk of the arraigns was so much astonished, 
that he could not help observing upon the number of 
market-towns in Dorset: he said, that "the sentence 
reached to whipping about once a fortnight, and that Mr. 
Tutchin was a very young man." — "Ay, he is a very 
young man, but an old rogue," retorted the invincible 
judge; "and all the interest in England shan't reverse 
the sentence I have passed on him." Tutchin himself 
had that keen regard for his bones, and was so fully sen- 
sible of the discipline intended him, that he actually pe- 
titioned the King to be hanged with his fellow-prisoners. 
It seems that the court felt the enormity of the chastise- 
ment proposed; but all that transpired was, "Mr. Tutchin 

' Thomas Pitts, gent., was the author of the « Western Martyrology." 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 169 



must wait with patience." Then the young man tried to 
buy a pardon, but in vain ; and then came the small-pox, 
a day or two before his first lashes were to have taken 
place, and reduced him so low, as to occasion a reversal 
of the sentence by Jeffreys himself. Most probably, as 
in Rosewell's case, the King had peremptorily com- 
manded the change. 1 

The doom of the Dorsetshire men being fixed, the 
judges went forward to Exeter. Jeffreys was beset on 
all sides by petitions from the inhabitants of the places 
through which he passed, that he would compassionate 
their relations. But a little incident occurred, which had 
like to have driven away the veriest shade of mercy. The 
cavalcade had stopped to sleep at the house of some ho- 
nourable gentleman, when in the midst of a disorder, oc- 
casioned, it is said, by the servants, some pistols were 
fired in the night. The great man took the alarm in- 
stantly, for he had a suspicion that a design was on foot 
against him ; and, at parting, he declared, that " not a 
man of all those parishes that were of that vicinitude, if 
found guilty, should escape." 

However, the severity exercised in Devonshire fell short 
of that which had occurred in Dorset, as did the dread- 
ful punishments which awaited the next county : yet the 
same method of economizing time was resorted to, and 
with much success. There was one John Foweracres 
who had sufficient nerve to stand a trial, but by no means 
the fortune of gaining his acquittal ; and the precedent 



* We are told also, that a boy of Weymouth, about ten or twelve years 
old, was most cruelly whipped for being in possession of some popular 
pamphlet. 

15 



170 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



of going before a jury was considered so obnoxious, that 
the prisoner was ordered for instant execution. This had 
the desired effect, for the rest of the culprits immediately 
pleaded guilty, which saved "further trouble." Never- 
theless, thirty-seven were hanged in different parts of the 
county, and several transported, whipped, and imprisoned. 
The number of accused amounted to two hundred and 
forty-three. 

"VVe cannot forbear to insert here a description, which 
was given at that time, of the beautiful western country. 

"He" (Jeffreys) "made all the west an Aceldama; 
some places quite depopulated, and nothing to be seen in 
'em but forsaken walls, unlucky gibbets, and ghostly car- 
casses. The trees were loaden almost as thick with quar- 
ters as leaves : the houses and steeples covered as close 
Avith heads, as at other times frequently in that country 
with crows or ravens. Nothing could be liker hell than 
all those parts ; nothing so like the devil as he. Caldrons 
hizzing, carkases boyling, pitch and tar sparkling and 
glowing, 1 blood and limbs boyling, and tearing, and man- 
gling, and he the great director of all ; and in a word, 
discharging his place who sent him, the best deserving to 
be the King's late chief justice there, and chancellor 
after, of any man that breath'd since Cain or Judas." If 
this be an exaggerated picture, it must be confessed that 
there is imagination in it. The prisoners, however, re- 
ceived great kindness from the city of Exeter. "Most 
sorts of provisions, as hot broth, boyled meat, roast meat, 
divers sorts of pies, were daily sent into the prison ; the 
persons that sent them unknown to them." 



1 It was Kirk who is said to have ordered the boiling the rebellious 
carcasses in pitch. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 171 



Five hundred unfortunates still lingered in the county 
of Somerset, and thither Jeffreys was now come, de- 
termined upon expedition, and in no wise abated from his 
zeal. He began at Taunton, so lately the scene of 
boughs, herbs, and flowers, in honour of Monmouth, where 
twenty-six virgins had presented the invader with co- 
lours made by their townsmen ; the captain of the young 
women going forth to meet the duke with a naked sword 
in one hand, and a Bible in the other. Some of these 
were children, ten or twelve years old ; and yet their little 
frolic cost their parents dear; for when all was hushed, 
and the circuit over, the girls were excepted out of the 
act of amnesty for presenting the rebel chief with the 
standards. But then the knavery peeped out; for on 
payment of certain small douceurs according to ability, 
their pardons came out piecemeal, and they were deli- 
vered from a public trial which was threatened. Some gave 
<£50, some X100 ; and the money went, not to Jeffreys, 
but to the Queen's maids of honour as a Christmas-box. 
They sent an agent into the country to discriminate, as 
it should seem, and complained at first of the small sums 
which were extorted, for they expected seven thousand 
pounds ; but they were compelled to be satisfied, and the 
matter dropped. 1 



' The affair did not pass away without a struggle, for the Duke of 
Somerset interfered on the behalf of the court ladies. He wrote to Sir 
Francis Ware,* urging him to secure some of the rebellious girls, and, 
above all, -the school mistress. Another letter from his grace to the 
baronet, recommended the giving a power of attorney to some one, 
which the maids of honour were to sign ; but Sir Francis represented 
that the teacher was a woman of low birth, and that the scholars worked 



Baronet of Hrstcrcombe. 



172 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



On the first night of the chief's arrival at Taunton, he 
not only opened the commission, but gave his charge, 
•which was furious enough ; and Ralph tells us, that he 
declared "it would not be his fault if he did not depopu- 
late the place." A sad omen for the men in Taunton 
Castle. But the old game was, notwithstanding, very 
available for confessions. This is celebrated in a poem 
called " Jeffrey s's Elegy:" — 

He bid 'um to confess, if ere they hope 

To be reprieved from the fatal rope : 

This seem'd a favour, but he'd none forgive; 

The favour was, a day or two to live ; 

Which those had not that troubled him with tryal, 

His business blood, and would have no denyal. 

Two hundred he could sentence in an hour, &c. 

One Simon Hamling, a dissenter, had gone to Taunton 
to advise his son to remain neuter ; but as the Duke of 
Monmouth was at that time in the town, the father was 
taken before a justice on suspicion. Now, it seems, that 
the magistrates loved a bribe as well as the chief justice ; 
and as the rage of the day waxed very hot against secta- 
ries and conventicle preachers, Hamling, who would not, 
or did not know how T to attack the justice's weak side, 



the banner by her orders, without knowing any offence, upon which the 
greater severities were abandoned. One Miss Mary Blake, who worked 
the colours, died in Dorchester jail, as some say, of the small-pox, 
whilst her sister received a pardon. Another girl surrendered herself 
in court, when the judge looked so furiously upon her, telling the jailer, 
at the same time, to take her, that she pulled her hood over her face, 
and fell to weeping, and not many hours afterwards died through fear. 
See Toulmin's History of Taunton, p. 162 ; and the same book, edited 
and enlarged by J. B. Savage, where the original letters may be seen. 
Taunton, 1822,.p. 529. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 173 

stood no chance of escaping a committal. William Gat- 
cliett, or Gatchell, a constable, had been compelled to 
execute a warrant for bringing provisions to Monmouth's 
army, on pain of having his house burnt, &c, and was 
accordingly sent to jail as an accomplice. Now these 
two men had most excellent defences, but unhappily, 
perhaps, had the courage to make use of them ; they there- 
fore gave in their pleas, Not guilty. Of course the jury 
convicted them, and thus secured them the advantage of 
being hung first : so they were sent to the gallows the 
morning after their trial. The constable was a very de- 
cided character ; for as he went to execution, he looked 
upon the Taunton men very calmly, and said, "A popu- 
lous town, God bless it !" But Hamling's case was the 
most hard. The evidences against him were profligate 
fellows, who would do any thing for the committing justice ; 
and the prisoner proved that fact, but in vain. And what 
is still more remarkable, the justice himself was there, 
and could not help telling the judge that there certainly 
was a mistake concerning that man. And now, unless 
we had positively told the history of his execution, the 
reader would have looked for an instant acquittal. Jef- 
freys was made of sterner stuff. — "You have brought 
him on ; if he be innocent, his blood be upon you I" 1 ex- 
claimed the judge. What a scene does all this bandying 
reveal to us ! The magistrates were corrupt, and cared 
little or nothing for justice, and Jeffreys despised the ma- 
gistracy. As far as appearances went, he did not respect 



1 That was a dry speech of Nero, who, when he was told that the 
wrong man had been executed, coolly replied, "Doubtless he deserved 
to die as well as the other !" 

15* 



174 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



any one on earth who differed from his gigantic opinions. 
There was a tory nobleman in those parts, Lord Stawell, 
who was so much displeased with the severity which had 
been exercised, that he refused to see the chief justice. 
The peer resided at Cotheleston at that time ; and very 
soon afterwards came forth an order that one Colonel 
Bovet, of Taunton, should be executed close by my Lord 
Stawell's residence. Indeed, there was but little scruple 
or delicacy as to the place of death ; for it was not by 
any means impossible in those days to find a man hang- 
ing by a rope out of a chamber window ; and in fact, such 
an event is said to have happened at Taunton, and the 
hanging to have been accomplished by an executioner of 
•Exeter. 

It is not practicable to be correct to a man ; but we 
have authority for saying, that one hundred and forty-five 
were adjudged to die at the assizes held for Taunton, and 
that one hundred and forty-three of these actually suf- 
fered. The following warrant was sent by the sheriff of 
Somerset to the mayor of Bath : 

"Edward Hobbes, esq. sherreiffe of y e countie afore- 
said, to the con blts and other his Ma ties officers of the cittie 
and burrough of Bath, greeting: Whereas I have rec d 
a warr 1 under the hand and seale of the right hon bl the 
Lord Jeffreys for the executing of several rebells within 
yo r said cittie, These are therefore to will and require 
yo w immediately on sight hereof to erect a gallows in the 
most publike place of yo r said cittie to hang the said tray- 
to rs on, and that yo w provide halters to hang them with, 
a sufficient number of faggots to burne the bowells of 
fower traytors, and a furnace or cauldron to boyle their 
heads and quarters, and salt to boyle therewith, halfe a 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 175 



busliell to each trayt r , and tarr to tarr y m with, and a 
sufficient number of speares and poles to fix and place 
their heads and quarters : and that yo w warne the owners 
of fower oxen to be ready with a dray and wayne, and 
the said fower oxen at the time hereafter mentioned for 
execusion ; and yo w yo 1 ' selves, togeather with a guard of 
fortie able men att the least, to be present on Wednesday 
morning next by eight of the clock, to be aiding and 
assisting to me, or my deputie, to see the said rebells 
executed. Given under my seal of office this 16th day of 
November, A° 1° Jacobi Secundi, 1685. 

"Edward Hobbes, Vic. 

"Yo w are also to provide an axe and a cleaver for the 
quartering the said rebells." 

If mercy had been suffered to enjoy even the triumph 
of a moment, Jeffreys' great boast had been idle ; for he 
vauntingly puffed forth, on his return, that "he had 
hanged more men than all the judges of England since 
William the Conqueror." Colonel Kirk was left far be- 
hind by this seasonable brag. Jeffreys once asked a ma- 
jor how many the soldiers had killed; the officer said one 
thousand. " I believe I have condemned as many as that 
myself," returned the peer. 

Two hundred and eighty-four were ordered for trans- 
portation at this town, and forty-three were recommended 
for a pardon. There was another little list of fifteen 
very lucky beings who were intended for execution, but 
were accidentally omitted in the warrant. The whippings 
went on as usual. "I will pay my excise to King Mon- 
mouth," said one Mrs. Brown, an unfortunate gossip of 
Lyme, to an officer of excise, but quite jestingly. This 



176 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



tattling occasioned her some smart floggings through the 
market-towns of her county. There was a Captain 
Madders, who bore the character of being a good Christian 
and an honest man, and was, moreover, positively instru- 
mental in giving due and loyal notice of the duke's 
rising. All this was told Jeffreys ; but whether the captain 
had refused to pouch the chief, as we say at Eton, 
or otherwise howsoever, as the special pleaders say, is 
not quite capable of solution. "Oh! then," cries my 
lord, when he had heard the recommendation, "I'll hold 
a wager with you he is a presbyterian : I can smell them 
forty miles." He was hung. There is a great triumphing 
with some writers about the death of John Hucker. 1 Sir 
John Dalrymple says that this execution escaped censure. 
Hucker, 2 who gave the alarm to Feversham's army, plead- 
ed his treachery in mitigation. " He deserves a double 
death," said the impartial judge; "one for rebelling 
against his sovereign, and the other for betraying his 
friends." However, Hucker had no mind to die under 
so gross an imputation ; for in a letter which he wrote a 
few hours before his execution, he thus complains : — I 
also lye under a reproach of being unfaithful to an inte- 
rest that I owned, which I utterly deny and disown." — 
Men sometimes go to the gallows under false colours, if 
they think that their reputation will be saved by the 
disguise. 

The carts with prisoners were now put in motion again, 



1 Dalrymple calls him Robert, which was the name of his son, who 
had no concern in the matter. 

2 It has been asserted that he did this because the duke refused to 
make him governor of Taunton. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 177 



for there Avas to be another visitation for Somerset at 
Wells ; and to be short, after the accustomed manoeuvring 
to gain confessions, and menaces to enforce verdicts, one 
hundred capital convicts were obtained, of whom ninety- 
seven died by the executioner. There was a general 
settlement of accounts here ; three hundred and eighty- 
five were delivered over to different people for transporta- 
tion,, a few were pardoned, and about five escaped, who 
were fully destined for the other world, but left out of 
the warrant. Upwards of one hundred more were bound, 
each for the other, to appear at the next assizes, in the 
penalty of 100?. And then the chief justice proposed to 
jog towards home, taking Bristol in his way. 

We must stop for an instant to speak of the excellent 
Bishop Ken, of Bath and Wells. This prelate had checked 
the severities of Feversham, (who was anticipating Jef- 
freys very ably,) by hinting that persons were entitled 
to a trial by jury after the first heat of victory had sub- 
sided. And, afterwards, he spared neither expense nor 
pains in soothing the truly wretched state of the accumu- 
lating prisoners in Wells, who were gnawed by despair, 
fear, and disappointment. 

This 'divine was a remarkable man in other respects: 
he was one of the seven bishops who came under the lash 
of the privy-council for opposing the King's declaration, 
and yet lost his see at the Revolution, because he could 
not subscribe the new tests. 

We left Jeffreys on his road to Bristol, where it was 
really intended to make some examples, for that city had 
shown some readiness to open the gates to Monmouth, 
though such lengths were not gone. It will be recollected, 
that a severe usage of the mayor and aldermen has been 



178 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



already told, and a magnificent harangue against slavery 
with all the consequences detailed to the reader in a 
former page. It is to be feared, that the merit of 
arresting the evils of kidnapping must he considerably 
lessened, when we find that the whole affair was a politi- 
cal attack upon the place for its inclination to rebellion, 
and not a pure emanation of justice: not but that a more 
heavy penalty would have been inflicted than the mere 
bullying and fining of the corporation, had it been practi- 
cable ; but as Ralph says, "Jeffreys, to his great morti- 
fication, found no traitors to fatten upon here (Bristol.") 
So that he was obliged to content himself with pulling 
their strongholds to pieces, — the pride and ostentation 
of their magistracy, which he certainly found means to 
mortify in a very painful degree; and as he never could 
endure that any one should be greater than himself, he 
was delighted beyond measure at the opportunity. He 
began by putting himself at the head of the commission 
before the mayor, which had not been usual, and this 
must have displeased the Bristol men not a little ; but 
they were too much terrified by the fame of his exploits 
to show their teeth. They received him, therefore, with 
great state and splendour, and this was meant to soften 
him; but, "Lord!" said he, "we have been used to these 
things;" and very coolly proceeded to business. His 
charge is so precious a morceau, that it cannot be entire- 
ly omitted, because it so plainly bespeaks the man ; nor 
can we give it quite at its length, for fear of wearying 
those who read. Here are some extracts : 

"Gentlemen, I am, by the mercy of God, come to this 
great and populous city; a city that boasts both of its 
riches and trade, and may justly indeed claim the next 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 179 



place to the great and populous metropolis. Gentlemen, 
I find here are a great many auditors who are very in- 
tent, as if they expected some formal or prepared speech ; 
but assure yourselves, we come not to make neither set 
speeches nor formal declamations, nor to follow a couple 
of puffing trumpeters; for, Lord! we have seen these 
things twenty times before : no, we come to do the King's 
business." — "But I find a special commission is an unu- 
sual thing here, and relishes very ill ; nay, the very wo- 
men storm at it, for. fear we should take the upper hand 
of them too : for, by the by, gentlemen, I hear it is much 
in fashion in this city for the women to govern and bear 
sway." Then he told them that he should give them no 
trouble about points or matters of law, but only mind 
them of events which had happened, "for I have the 
calendar of this city in my pocket," said he; and he then 
complained of the stone, and the unevenness of their 
roads, which was a bad omen for them. After this came 
a long sermon about the blessed martyr, King Charles, 
and rebellion the sin of witchcraft, a panegyric on King 
James, and an ample acknowledgment of his absolute 
power as God's vicegerent on earth : and then he opened 
on the Duke of Monmouth, by way of antithesis : — " On 
the other hand, up starts a puppet prince who seduces 
the mobile into rebellion, into which they are easily be- 
witched; for, I say, rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft. 
This man, who had as little title to the crown as the least 
of you (for I hope you are all legitimate,) being overtaken 
by justice, and by the goodness of his prince brought to 
the scaffold, he has the confidence (good God ! that men 
should be so impudent !) to say, that God Almighty did 
know with what joyfulness he did die (a traitor!)" — 



180 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



" Great God of heaven and earth ! what reason have men 
to rebel? But as I told you, rebellion is like the sin of 
witchcraft: fear God and honour the King is rejected by 
people, for no other reason, as I can find, but that it is 
written in St. Peter. Gentlemen, I must tell you, I am 
afraid that this city hath too many of these people in it; 
and it is your duty to search them out." — [Here^the 
grand jury were in as many words directed to the mayor 
and aldermen.] — " For this city added much to that ship's 
loading ; there was your Tylys, your Roes, and your 
Wades, men started up like mushrooms, scoundrel fel- 
lows, mere sons of dunghills : these men must forsooth 
set up for liberty and property ! A fellow that carries 
the sword before Mr. Mayor must be very careful of his 
property, and turn politician, as if he had as much pro- 
perty as the person before whom he bears the sword, 
though perchance not worth a groat. Gentlemen, I must 
tell you, you have still here the Tylys, the Roes, and the 
Wades : I have brought a brush in my pocket, and I shall 
be sure to rub the dirt wherever it is, or on whomsoever 
it sticks. Gentlemen, I shall not stand complimenting 
with you : I shall talk with some of you before you and I 
part, I tell you; I tell you, I have brought a besom, and 
I will sweep every man's door, whether great or small. 
Must I mention particulars? I hope you will save me 
that trouble." — "I do believe it would have went very 
hard with you if the enemy had entered the city, not- 
withstanding the endeavours which were used to accom- 
plish it. Certainly they had, and must have great en- 
couragement from a party within, or else why should 
their design be on this city ? Nay, when the enemy was 
within a mile of you, that a ship should be set on fire in 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 181 



the midst of you, as a signal to the rebels, and to amuse 
those within ! when, if God Almighty had not been more 
gracious unto you than you was to yourselves, (so that 
wind and tide was for you,) for what I know, the greatest 
part of this city had perished; and yet you are willing to 
believe it was an accident. Certainly here is a great 
many^of those men whom they call trimmers: a whig is 
but a mere fool to these ; for a whig is some sort of a 
subject in comparison of these; for a trimmer is but a 
cowardly and base-spirited whig ; for the whig is but the 
journeyman-prentice that is hired, and set over the re- 
bellion, whilst the trimmer is afraid to appear in the 
cause." — "Gentlemen, I tell you, I have the calendar of 
this city here in my hand. I have heard of those that 
have searched into the very sink of a conventicle, to find 
out some sneaking rascal to hide their money by night. 
Come, come, gentlemen, to be plain with you, I find the 
dirt of the ditch is in your nostrils." — [Now he opens 
upon the chief offence, alluded to by his having the ca- 
lendar in his pocket, — the selling convicted criminals for 
slaves.] — "Good God! where am I — in Bristol? This 
city, it seems, claims the privilege of hanging and draw- 
ing amongst themselves ! I find you have more need of 
a commission once a month at least. The very magis- 
trates which should be the ministers of justice, fall out 
one with another to that degree, they will scarce dine 
with each other ; whilst it is the business of some cunning 
men that lie behind the curtain, to raise divisions amongst 
them, and set them together by the ears, and knock their 
loggerheads together : yet I find they can agree for their 
interest, or if there be but a kid in the case ; for I hear 
the trade of kidnapping is much in request in this city : 
16 



182 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



they can discharge a felon or a traitor, provided they 
will go to Mr. Alderman's plantation at the West Indies. 
Come, come, I find you stink for want of rubbing. Gen- 
tlemen, what need I mind you of these things? I hope 
you will search into them, and inform me. It seems the 
dissenters and fanatics fare well amongst you, by reason 
of the favour of the magistrates: for example, if a dis- 
senter, who is a notorious and obstinate offender, comes 
before them to be fined, one alderman or other stands 
up, and says, He is a good man (though three parts a 
rebel !) Well, then, for the sake of Mr. Alderman, he 
shall be fined but five shillings. Then comes another, 
and up stands another good man alderman, and says, I 
know him to be an honest man (though rather worse than 
the former.) Well, for Mr. Alderman's sake, he shall 
be fined but half-a-crown ; so, manus manum fricat? 
you play the knave for me now, and I will play the knave 
for you by and by. I am ashamed of these things: and 
I must not forget to tell you, that I hear of some diffe- 
rences among the clergy, — those that ought to preach 
peace and unity to others : gentlemen, these things must 
be looked into." 

The scope of this tirade, peculiar and without prece- 
dent, wa_s to alarm the jury, to extort mutual crimina- 
tions and confessions, and thus build up a calendar of 
malefactors. The mayor and aldermen of Bristol would 
have filled Jeffreys's purse most marvellously, if their 
necks could have been drawn within the hempen circle ; 
but the experiment was idle, and all that remained was 
to make a due inquisition into the slave trade. Much of 



They tickle each other's palms. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 183 

the result of this charge has been related : to be very 
brief, therefore, the corporation were presented as kid- 
nappers ; and as they descended from the bench to the 
bar, Jeffreys bawled out, "See how the kidnapping rogues 
look!" 

This was not, however, the first time that our judge 
had mortified a sleek citizen. Sir James Smith, lord 
mayor of London in 1685, bitterly complained to Sir 
John Reresby of the superciliousness which he met with 
from the great man : he declared, that he was but the 
mere ombre of a lord mayor, the authority being entirely 
usurped by another chief magistrate ; and he added, in a 
tone of pity, that haughtiness would be the ruin of my 
Lord Jeffreys. Good easy man ! he thought of acquaint- 
ing the King with it, and Reresby even advised him to 
do so; but Monmouth and Argyle, then in arms, gave 
way, and other matters supervened. Sir Robert Gef- 
fery, some distant relation to the then new chancellor, 
sat in the civic chair the next year. 

But both Smith and Reresby agreed together that this 
judge had a method of ejecting as many as five aldermen 
at a time (which was done at York,) without hearing 
their defence. Such was the virtue of the "ring," — such 
its giant-rearing qualities. 

However, six men were convicted of treason at Bristol; 
and three of these were executed, although they have 
been considered ever since as "martyrs to political re- 
venge." 1 

1 See Bristol, by Corry and Evans, vol. ii. p. 8. The names of the 
persons executed in the west may be found in "The Life and Death of 
George Lord Jeffreys." London, 16J3, Svo. p. 54, and in "Proceedings 
against the Rebels in 1685," &c. Lond. 1716. 



184 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



The work was now fully done, and the horses' heads 
were turned towards the metropolis. Most writers have 
declared, that Jeffreys hastened home to pounce upon 
the great seal, which had become vacant by the death of 
Lord Guilford. And there seems to be very good reason 
for believing that the king wrote a letter with his own 
hand to the chief justice on the circuit, urging him to 
return home and receive the seal, for that he was obliged 
to be chancellor himself in the meanwhile. But it is 
quite clear that the vacancy happened at a most favour- 
able juncture, for the commission had been opened at 
the last place, and three or four hundred men hung, and 
what more could be done for the King's service ? The 
men of Cornwall had not involved themselves in the dis- 
aster, being quite satisfied, perhaps, with the resistance 
which their ancestors had made to King Henry the VII., 
and with the unlucky fate which attended them in that 
rebellion. As it therefore suited the convenience of our 
judge to go home, the purse and the insignia of the chan- 
cery were very agreeable things in prospect for him after 
his sanguinary labours. Indeed, according to Evelyn, it 
was the common talk of the time, that the seal was to be 
bestowed in this manner as a reward for the rigorous 
prosecution of the rebels. A great blunder which has 
been frequently imitated, is that of ascribing Jeffreys's 
peerage to his services in the west, whereas he had been 
created baron of Wem in the May preceding, of course 
before the landing of Monmouth. 

A cry for mercy harassed the returning magistrate, as 
might be expected ; for those who pleaded guilty were not 
sacrificed quite so soon as the people who dared to say 
that they were innocent. When the cavalcade was pass- 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 185 



ing from Somerset into Wilts (Jeffreys still in the quality 
of Lieutenant-general, with a body of dragoons as his life 
guard,) a major in the regiment took the liberty of saying 
to him, that there were two Spekes, and that one of these 
being left for execution, was not the man intended; and 
that, perhaps, favour might be shown him. "No, his 
family owe a life," replied the general-judge; "he shall 
die for his namesake." The mayor of Taunton also in- 
terceded for this person, but Jeffreys silenced him with 
the same reply, and a violent motion of his arm. These 
Spekes were brothers, and he who had been intended for 
the rope had escaped. There is an old fable, which warns 
us never to adventure ourselves within reach of the lion's 
mouth, if we can by possibility escape; and there was a 
man of those days called Tory Tom, who knew the moral 
of this very correctly. The major, above-mentioned, had 
sent this fellow to the guard-house at Wells for sauciness, 
and, after some time, Tom begged for his liberty; but 
while he sent a letter with this view, he took care to pro- 
cure some people to intercede with the major that his 
name should not be mentioned to Jeffreys, for that, right 
or wrong, Tory Tom would be hanged if any one gave 
him an ill word in that quarter. Upon submission he 
got his discharge, and was not left "to the mercy of his 
own tory judge." How great men are sometimes out- 
witted by their confidants and underlings ! What would 
the embryo chancellor have said, or rather what would 
he not have sworn, had he known that one of Monmouth's 
professed and dear friends was travelling very safely to 
London, nearly about the same time with himself? And 
yet nothing is more certain ; for Dr. Oliver, a physician 
to Greenwich Hospital, (the man who advised the duke 
16* 



18G LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



after the battle to seize a passage-boat and make for 
Wales, where he might have been concealed,) was safely 
stowed with the judge's clerk, to whom he had been re- 
commended by a tory, and both were moving on towards 
the east in company. 

But if it should be imagined that all the rigours and 
penalties were now over, we must bring again to remem- 
brance the mulcting of the poor Taunton children, who 
were long vexed with threats of punishment, and demands 
of heavy fines : and the most remarkable instance of ex- 
action still remains behind. Edmund Prideaux, Esq., 1 of 
Ford Abbey, Devon, was brought to London in June by 
Lord Sunderland's 2 warrant, and committed to the cus- 
tody of a messenger: this was two days after the Duke 
of Monmouth's landing. He was kept in imprisonment 
for a month without examination, and was then discharged 
upon his habeas corpus, giving security to the amount of 
10,000?. for his future appearance. On the 14th of Sep- 
tember, he was again sent prisoner to the Tower, charged 
with high treason. The agents on the circuit had by this 

« Son of Mr. Attorney-General Prideaux. Mr. Attorney was of the 
Inner Temple, and sat in parliament for Lyme; he was a busy man in 
examining the King's cabinet of letters, taken at Naseby, and in the 
bustles of those times made a very conspicuous figure. He was some 
time a commissioner of the great seal, and was made a baronet by Oli- 
ver, who made him post-master for all the inland letters. He was also 
recorder of Exeter, and practised within the bar. At the Restoration 
he managed to make his peace, and died, very rich, August 19, 1669. 
The great Archbishop Tillotson was employed to instruct his son ; and 
he so far ingratiated himself with the attorney-general, as to obtain 
1000/. out of the Exchequer for the improvement of his college (Clare 
Hall.) This money, however, was seized by the parliament forces, and 
applied towards the fortifying Cambridge Castle. 
4 Then secretary of state. 



LTFE OF JEFFREYS. 187 



time satisfied themselves of his capacity to ransom his 
life, and all hands were at work to hatch an accusation, 
while Jeffreys boldly declared his resolution to hang; and 
this he would have done with the greater pleasure, he- 
cause Edmund Prideaux, the commonwealth attorney-ge- 
neral, was the father of this hardly beset gentleman. 

Prideaux applied to the King, but received this damning 
answer, — " That the King had given him to Jeffreys." 
Mrs. Prideaux, who was refused access to her husband, 
until she had consented "to remain with him in confine- 
ment, found the case very desperate, for the alternative 
of instant execution or pardon was holden out to many 
of the western prisoners, if they persisted in a refusal to 
accuse him on the one hand, or would come forward and 
impeach him on the other. So being informed that his 
Majesty's gift had been conferred for the eminent ser- 
vices which had been rendered to the crown, she ventured 
to ask the terms on which the agents would guaranty 
her husband's temporal salvation. 10,000?. she received 
for answer. There was a demur to this extravagant de- 
mand. It has happened not once nor twice to men who 
have been extremely anxious to purchase estates, that on 
their hesitating to give the sum required, a considerable 
advance has been forthwith propounded in place of the 
expected abatement; and thus it happened here. The 
price was raised to 15,000/. and actually paid, a set-off 
of 240/. being allowed for the prompt payment of a part. 
The prisoner had been in duresse for seven months, and 
without knowing the particulars which had occasioned his 
misfortune. Another person of respectability in that 
country laid down fifteen or sixteen hundred guineas 



188 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



which came into the same coffers. 1 With part of this 
money the chancellor bought the manor of Broughton, or 
Nether Broughton, in Leicestershire, in 1687. He gave 
34,000/. for the property, which he mortgaged in the 
course of a year afterwards. 2 Some disposition was mani- 
fested on the accession of William III. to compensate 
Mr. Prideaux for his losses ; and a bill was accordingly 
brought into the Commons "for charging the manors of 
Dalby on the Woulds, and Nether Broughton in Leices- 
tershire, with the repayment *of 15,000?. and interest, 
extorted by him from Mr. Prideaux." It was unsuccessful, 
and one of its most strenuous opponents was my Lord 
Chief Justice Pollexfen, the same man who conducted the 
crown cases in the west, and who became a trustee, with 
others, for the children and creditors of the deceased 
peer. 

These lands were sold, however, about the year 1709, 
by virtue of an act which was passed for that purpose, it 
being found impossible otherwise to satisfy certain settle- 
ments made by the first lord in 1688. 3 Thus the rude, 



1 Jeffreys certainly received 1416/. 10s. for the job in the West from 
Graham and Burton, the crown solicitors, as appears from the parlia- 
mentary inquiry which was instituted. 

■ He bought two estates of the Duke of Albemarle with this money. 

3 It was an act for " vesting the barony of Wem, and manors of Wem 
and Loppington, and several lands and tenements in the county of Salop; 
and the manors of Dalby and Broughton, and lands thereunto belonging, 
in the county of Leicester; and the manor of Fulmer, and several lands 
and tenements in the county of Bucks (amongst which was Bulstrode,) 
late the estate of George, late Lord Jeffreys, deceased, in trustees, to be 
sold." — "George Jeffreys died seized of the manor of Broughton, with 
its rights, members, and appurtenances; and also of all that capital mes- 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 189 



untutored boy, who came up from Wales in 1658, without 
an acre of ground, is found in possession of capital mes- 
suages, woods, pastures, manorial rights, and royalties. 
But an old writer applies the saying of Juvenal to him : — 

Criminibus debent hortos, praetoria, mensas, 
Argentum vetus, et stantem extra pocula caprum. 

Great men to great crimes owe their plate embost, 
Fair Palaces, and furniture of cost. — Dry den. 

No sooner had Jeffreys regained the court, than he was 
strictly questioned upon his conduct, according to Father 
Orleans, the great apologist for James ; but he palliated 
and excused himself so ably by reason of the King's wel- 
fare, that no further notice was taken ; and so the manes 
of the innocent sufferers, if any such there were, re- 
mained unpropitiated. 

Now is the fittest time, were we so disposed, to recount 
all the bitter imprecations which men have poured forth 
against the subject of this memoir, and then, in the true 
strain of panegyric, to palliate his faults, till they first 
slide gently into failings, and presently ascend into the 
scale of virtues. There must, however, be some exte- 
nuating circumstances in the conduct of every one, be it 
never so reprehensible in the general; for nature can 
hardly be so depraved, as not to let in good at some time 
or another. But there will be no elaborate attempt to 
excuse or explain away in these pages, and the very sting 

suage, mansion-house, park, and all those messuages, woods, lands, mea- 
dow, and pasture, parcel or reputed parcel of the manor of Dalby, in 
possession of Timothy Hemsby, at the yearly rent of 157/. 10s. and also 
of Brandriffe's tenement, parcel of the said manor, in possession of 
Christopher Hawley, at the rent of 14/. &c." — See Nicholl's Leicestersh. 
vol. ii. part 1, p. 119. 



190 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



of the transaction will be suffered to remain as acute as 
the judge's severest censurers can wish. But it must just 
be told what sort of people the special commissioners had 
to deal with, and in doing this, no disrespect is intended 
to any class or sect in religion. They were not a broken- 
down, repentant, spiritless race, who had plucked up 
their muskets in a moment of excitement, and then laid 
them quietly down again in patient expectation of punish- 
ment, like wayward schoolboys who await the lash. Arch- 
deacon Echard, who speaks very strongly against the ef- 
fusion of blood, admits that the behaviour of the priso- 
ners was such as rather tended to exasperate the judges, 
than to encourage a feeling of compassion for them ; and 
this was a highly dangerous exploit, if it be considered 
that a patient under a raving fit of the stone was to try 
them. 

Kirk 1 had determined to know their temper after the 



'Colonel Kirk was a soldier of fortune, and had acquired, by a long 
command at Tangier among the Moors, a considerable appetite for 
military execution. Amongst other cruelties which he practised at 
Taunton after the battle, was a massacre of thirty persons, whom he 
caused to be hung whilst he was feasting. Ten went off in a health to 
the king, ten to the queen, ten to Jeffreys. Some say that he caused 
the drums to beat, when the criminals were struggling in death, that 
" they might have music to their dancing." Others doubt the cruelties 
altogether, and contend that such a man could never have been employed 
at the Revolution as major-general, if he had been guilty of such enor- 
mities. But William, only three days after his landing, would hardly 
have troubled himself with the character of a man, who was a brave and 
active soldier, and ready to serve him, for Kirk disliked and deserted the 
fortunes of James. Indeed, according to the colonel's opinion, the mo- 
narch knew so little how to prontjby his victory at Sedgemoor, that when 
he took leave of a Mr. Harvey at Bridgewater, who had been very civil 
to him, he said, "I believe it will not be long before I see you again :" 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 191 



battle which had marred all their hopes, and so hanged 
a man on the White Hart sign-post, at Taunton, three 
times, to see if he would own his fault. The man affirmed, 
that if it was to do again, he would engage in the same 
cause. And another refused his life, which was offered 
him on condition of his crying "God bless King James!" 

and there was something about his manner which intimated that it would 
not be on the same side. Kirk, as well as Jeffreys, always said, that he 
did nothing but by express orders from the King and his general, and 
that he put a restraint upon the power and instructions given him. When 
James wanted him to turn papist, he very drily said that he was "really 
very sorry, but that he was pre-engaged." The King smiled, and asked 
him what he meant. " Why, truly, when I was abroad," answered Kirk, 
"I promised the Emperor of Morocco, that if ever I changed my re- 
ligion, I would turn Mahometan; and I never did break my word in my 
life, and must beg leave to say I never will." As to the famous story 
of Kirk's ill usage of a young lady, there being many doubts and much 
argument upon the subject, we cannot do better than to refer the reader 
to the History of Taunton, by Dr. Toulmin, the new edition by J. B. 
Savage, pp. 540 — 549. A story tending to exculpate Kirk is given there. 
When he was standing at a balcony with his officers to view the exe- 
cution of twenty rebels, a Mrs. Rowe begged the life of one ; Kirk turned 
to Bush, a stupid lieutenant, and said, " Go, bid the executioner cut him 
down." Bush never asked the man's name who was to be cut down,* so 
that when he came to do his bidding, — "Cut him down?" quoth Ketch, 
" which him ? for there are twenty." The culprit to be saved was pray- 
ing most devoutly, and heard none of all this; but another, who was 
thinking of something else besides his prayers, told Mr. Bush that he 
was the man. Bush took his word; he was cut down, and away he went. 
Why should not this be a different story, and so both be held authentic, 
since there has always been an unsuspecting tradition of the other ? See 
also Holt's Characters of the Kings of England, p. 2C3. 



*IIow strikingly this fact 'resembles a passage in " Coriolanus !" Coriolamis is 
begging the freedom of his host, with whom he had sojourned in Corioli. Cominius, 
the general, agrees instantly to the request. Then Lartius speaks — 

Marcius, his name? 
Cot Manas. ~- By Jupiter, forgot , 
1 am weary: yea, my memory is tired. 



192 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



Some of them asserted the righteousness of their enter- 
prise in open court ; and such as these, with all our 
mercy and clemency, would be hung now if they should 
be esteemed of sufficient consequence. A great number 
of the disaffected were dissenters ; and this was a race 
that Jeffreys would call "stiff-necked," and hated as 
sincerely as he loved power : and truly there had been 
some very furious fanatics among them, the fifth mo- 
narchies, for example. The judge was not to be blamed, 
if he kept a very jealous eye over people who were not 
backward to introduce innovation under an appearance 
of the most godly sanctity, or unbridled enthusiasm. 
There were some good, well-meaning Christians among 
them ; but we say that Jeffreys had met with a great deal 
of detestable and snivelling hypocrisy, and that he was 
led away by his passions to condemn the general body. 
God forbid, that there should be any persecution for con- 
science sake ; but let those beware who would remove the 
ancient land-mark, and thus endanger the security of a 
well compacted and firm constitution. They may gratify 
the visionary ideas of liberty which are splendid and 
effulgent enough for regions of fanciful romance, but by 
far too intoxicating for the heads of sober citizens. Slow, 
and tardily moving with the opening intellect of the times, 
should be the pace of improvement, neither excited by 
passion, nor overawed by menace. The clinging crusts 
which clothe the rock mark truly its years and strength : 
the naked offspring of volcanic fire is spouted wildly from 
the ocean, soon to sink back into its bosom. The judge 
was involved with sons of violence, and it was not more 
than his duty, pledged by oaths, to crush them. At the 
justice of the execution the more moderate writers have 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 193 



not cavilled; the source of regret is, that the divine at- 
tribute of mercy was not imitated. " I have indeed some- 
times thought," says the author of a Caveat against the 
Whigs, "that in Jeffreys's western circuit, justice went 
too far before mercy was remembered, though there was 
not above a fourth part executed of what were convicted. 
But when I consider in what manner several of these 
lives then spared were afterwards spent, I can but think 
a little more hemp might have been usefully employed 
upon that occasion." For this he is most unmercifully 
censured by Ealph, which is not surprising ; but it shows 
the resolution of the insurgents, and explains the zeal of 
the high tory judges. Even Tutchin, who had been ex- 
cused his manifold scourgings, went off to the Tower to 
see the old persecuting judge in his dark hour ; and as it 
no where appears that his visit was charitable, it would 
not have been amiss, if he had been whipped out of that 
garrison for his intrusion. And if we should find, more- 
over, that orders had been issued from the seat of royalty 
to spare none, the case of Jeffreys will assume a very 
different complexion, especially if it should appear that 
he was "snubbed at" 1 on his return for not doing more. 
A wise and good man would have resigned his place rather 
than have obeyed such orders, but an ambitious courtier 
would probably retain it ; and so did Jeffreys, who was 
behind no man in pushing his own advancement. 

But although thus much has been said to extenuate, 
or (if that be too kind an expression) to explain this con- 
duct on the part of Jeffreys, it is impossible to say other- 
wise than that he either was an infuriated maniac, or 



'His own expression. 

17 



194 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



had a very inhuman thirst for blood. The rigours of 
tardy justice could never have fallen at once for the same 
crime upon three hundred and fifty persons, unless the 
minister of their fate had been most painfully averse to 
mercy. 

One more consideration remains — it is that which we 
have promised; but, courteous reader! be not alarmed, 
we have vouched for its brevity. Was the monarch guilt- 
less of this blood, or did he remain plausible but reckless 
in his eastern metropolis? Was James the unrelenting 
tyrant, or did he pity as a father the sad punishment of 
his subj ects ? If he were cognizant of the unsparing rope, 
and calmly parried back the written plea for mercy, the 
controversy is no more — 

The King, the King's to blame ! 

If, as at the Boyne, he had said, " Oh ! spare my British 
subjects !" then has the royal head been stamped with 
most unsightly blemishes, and the angry page of both 
priest 1 and layman must be tarnished with one common 
blot. 

There are several evidences in favour of the Monarch ; 
first, 

Sheffield, Duke of Bucks. — Speaking of the King's 
sudden and silent retreat to the continent, he tells us, 
that "the mysterious carriage of this absconding cost 
the Lord Chancellor JefFeries his life, (a thing indeed of 
little value to anybody besides himself,) &c." — "This 
proceeding of his was imputed to neither ill-nature nor 

1 Bishop Burnet, and many others. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 195 



carelessness, two faults His Majesty was not guilty of, 
but rather to his generosity; which made him compas- 
sionate his very enemies so much, as never to forgive 
that lord's cruelty in executing such multitudes of them 
in the west against his express orders." 

The Ron. Roger North. — "Upon the news returned 
of his (Jeffreys's) violent proceeding, his Lordship saw 
the King would be a great sufferer thereby, and went di- 
rectly to the King, and moved him to put a stop to the 
fury, which was in no respect for his service, but in many 
respects for the contrary. For though the executions 
were, by law, just, yet never were the deluded people all 
capitally punished ; it would be accounted a carnage, and 
not law or justice ; and, therefore, orders went to miti- 
gate the proceeding ; but what effect followed, I know 
not. I am sure of his Lordship's intercession to the 
King on this occasion, being told it, at the very time, by 
himself." 

From the Stuart MSS. edited by the Rev. J. S. Clarice. 
— "His imprudent zeal, (speaking of Jeffreys,) or, as 
some say'd, avarice, carrying him beyond the terms of 
moderation and mercy, which was always most agreeable 
to the King's temper ; so he drew undeservedly a great 
obloquy upon His Majesty's clemency, not only in the 
number, but the manner too of several executions, and 
in showing mercy to so few, particularly an old gentle- 
woman, one Mrs. Alice Lisle, who was condemned and 
executed (Sept. 2,) only for harbouring one Hicks and 
Nelthorp, both ill men enough indeed, and the latter in 
a proclamation ; but as pretended, was ignorant of it, and 
therefore might suffer for a common act of hospitality." 



196 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



The case of Major Holmes is then mentioned, and the pal- 
liating circumstance of Pollexfen's appointment to be the 
leading counsel. Speaking of the chancellor, it is said, 
— " Certainly His Majesty had acted more prudently, had 
he refrain' d from heaping such distinguishing favours 
upon a person, who had by an imprudent zeal (at best) 
drawn such an odium both upon his master and him- 
self." 

Again: "Though this was made one of the popular 
topicks to decry His Majesty's government, 'tis certain, 
the King was hugely injur'd in it : his inclinations were 
no ways bloody, but ever bent to mercy; and, after all, 
he pardon'd thousands on this occasion, who had for- 
feited both life and estate." The escape of the peers 
who were involved in the rebellion is then adverted to ; 
and great stress laid upon the few executions which took 
place in London, by comparison with those in the west. 

Plre d' Orleans. — "Beaucoup d'autres furent punis, 
et en plus grand nombre meme que le Roi n'avoit pre- 
tendu. On en accuse la severitc du Chevalier Jeffreys 
leur juge, depuis chancelier d'Angleterre, la cruaute du 
Colonel Kirke, et en general l'avarice des commissaires 
preposez pour exercer envers les rebelles ou la severite 
des lois, ou la misericorde du prince: car on dit que le 
plus ou le moins de part dans le crime commis, ne fut 
pas en cette occasion le motif de la peine ou de l'indul- 
gence, que les moins en etat de racheter leur revoke 
furent ceux qui la payerent plus cher, et que si beaucoup 
de gens perdirent la vie, ce fut parce qu'il s'en trouva 
peu qui eussent assez d'argent pour la conserver. Le 
Roi fut trop tard averti de ce desordre, mais on ne Ten 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 197 



eut pas plutot informe, qu'il en temoigna de l'indignation ; 
et si des services importans, qu'il avoit recu de ceux qui 
en etoient accusez, l'obligea de les epargner, il repara 
autant qu'il put leur injustice, par le pardon general qu'il 
accorda a ceux des r6voltez, qui etoient encore en etat 
d'eprouver les effets de sa clemence." 

"Notwithstanding the rigour generally ascribed to the 
government of James," says Macpherson, "there is 
great reason to believe that the chief justice followed 
more the bent of his own mind, than the commands of 
his sovereign, in his behaviour in the west. The terrors 
of others for Jeffreys's power prevented any impartial 
account to come to the ears of the King." Then comes 
Major Holmes's story. 

Very different accounts are given by writers on the op- 
posite side of the question. The first we give more for 
its curiosity, than for any use we desire to make of it. 

"How can we choose but see, unless we have winkt 
ourselves blind, that the hand of the same Joab has been 
in all this ? that 'twas the famous D. of Y. who was at 
first as deep in Godfrey's murther, as in the fire of Lon- 
don ; the same who was at helm all along after, and as good 
as managed the executioners' axes and halters for so many 
years? " 

"He who show'd so much mercy to the poor west 
country men, women, and children, destroying so many 
hundreds in cold blood, and hardly sparing one man that 
cou'd write and read, by his chief hangman, Jeffreys." 

Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Sarum. — " That which 
brought all his (Jeffreys's) excesses to be imputed to the 
King himself, and to the orders given by him, was, that 
17* 



198 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



the King had a particular account of liis proceedings writ 
to him every day : and he took pleasure to relate them in 
the drawing-room to foreign ministers, and at his table, 
calling it Jefferies's campaign : speaking of all he had 
done in a style that neither became the majesty nor the 
mercifulness of a great prince. Dykfield was at that time 
in England, one of the ambassadors whom the States had 
sent over to congratulate the King's coming to the crown. 
lie told me, that the King talked so often of these things 
in his hearing, that he wondered to see him break out 
into those indecencies." 

Jeffreys' 's declaration when Tutchin visited him in the 
Tower. — He said, that " his instructions were much more 
severe than the execution of them ; and that, at his return, 
he was snubbed at court, for being too merciful." 

Jeffreys' s declaration to Dr. Scot on his death-bed. — 
Scot told it to Lord Somers, Lord Somers to Sir Joseph 
Jekyll, and the last to Onslow. The divine was drawing 
the attention of the dying man to the famous expedition, 
on which Jeffreys thanked him, and said with some emo- 
tion, — "Whatever I did then, I did by express orders; 
and I have this further to say for myself, that I was not 
half bloody enough for him who sent me thither." 

What ! desire a man who had been imbruing his hands 
in blood against the will and in violation of the honour 
of his sovereign, to come back and take the seals of 
England, to become keeper of his prince's conscience! 
yet so did James. What is the meaning of giving one 
subject up to another ? And yet such an event happened 
— for the King had given Prideaux to Jeffreys. What 
shall we say, if wo find the very fountain-head of mercy 



LIFE OF JEFFREY?. 199 



dried up at the suit of a subject ? And yet we hear, that 
the King had promised Jeffreys not to pardon the unhappy 
Lady Lisle. Who went shares in the extorted bribes of 
which those who could ransom were despoiled ? The 
Queen, — the maids of honour. There was an act of 
amnesty which the royal apologists most loudly applaud. 
Who were excepted out of the indemnities ? The poor 
Taunton children of twelve years old, that their parents 
might enrich the coffers of the court favourites. 

"We must rely upon great facts," said Parr, whilst he 
was asserting that all history was obscure in the detail. 
We are content to follow the advice of that considerable 
scholar, and we have great facts to adduce. The Duke 
of Monmouth came before his uncle, and begged for 
mercy: the King extorted a signed declaration from him 
of his illegitimacy, and then left him to the insults of the 
Queen, and to his fate. The duke rose from his knees 
with the scorn which became a brave man, and died 
under the axe. Here was no chief justice, it was the 
pure act of the monarch, who had decided upon death as 
his nephew's portion. If it be said, in allusion to the 
sentiment in Euripides, that in defence of empire a king 
may shed blood at his liking, let it be remembered, that 
the principal object intended is to remove from the me- 
mory of Jeffreys those contaminations which have marked 
him as the contriver of those dreadful scenes. Again, 
Mrs. Gaunt, the good anabaptist, (or baptist,) a woman 
of known beneficence, was burnt for concealing one Bur- 
ton ; and this happened in October, when the King had 
been of necessity acquainted with the past transactions, 
and had been dealing out his threats and reproaches, if 
we pay any credit to the MSS. Her judge was Sir 



200 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



Thomas Jones, a person of a reputation the very opposite 
to Jeffreys, yet she found no mercy. Cornish followed, 
whose fate is said to have been afterwards commiserated 
by the monarch, his accusers being condemned to per- 
petual imprisonment; but these signs of kindness and re- 
pentance were hardly visible till the kingdom was pass- 
ing away, and the last hope of safety was fast flitting 
with the tide of popular feeling. 

The mercy shown the great peers is relied on as a 
proof of James's clemency. These noblemen were the 
Lords Grey, Stamford, and Brandon Gerrard. 1 The first 
played the part of treachery at Bridport, and at Sedge- 
moor fight ; so that, when the Duke of Monmouth asked 
Colonel Matthews, after the former action, what he 
should do with the Lord Grey, the answer was: "That 
there was not a general in Europe that wou'd have asked 
such a question but himself." No wonder that a man 
was pardoned who had done such essential service to the 
King's forces under the disguise of a malecontent. 

Stamford was imprisoned so long without a trial, that 
he petitioned the House for an inquiry into his conduct, 
and it was finally fixed for the first of the following De- 
cember; but instead of sustaining the prosecution, his 
adversaries were content to have his name inserted in 
the general pardon, certainly because they had no evi- 
dence against him; and he was glad to avail himself of 
their vaunted clemency, being sensible how much a day 
might bring forth. 

Lord Brandon, according to Echard, contrived to ob- 

1 Lord Delamere was actually brought into jeopardy for his life, but 
acquitted. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 201 



tain a pardon by some means; and, considering that the 
archdeacon was not over favourable to rebels, it is little 
short of a clear proof that he came oif, not from the com- 
passionate bowels of the King, but by much the same 
manoeuvre which saved Hampden, — that is, by a good 
round bribe. Jeffreys had 6000?. from the patriot as the 
price of his ransom ; and yet, in the Stuart Papers, we 
find Hampden mentioned as a remarkable object of cle- 
mency ; but North says, that his brother told the King of 
the game which was going on, and that it was instantly 
checked. Whether the wary old courtier had waited 
until the last minute, that is, until the country could not 
be burdened with more gibbets, we cannot pretend to 
say ; but the facts are rather in opposition to any very 
successful opposition on the side of my lord keeper. 
Upwards of eighty were hung at Dorchester, one hun- 
dred and thirty-nine at Taunton, and one hundred at 
Wells. If the soft distilling dew of mercy had fallen so 
early, we should have had a converse ratio of the con- 
demned and executed; less than eighty would have died 
in Somerset, in place of the numbers who suffered. 

And with respect to Bristol, it was found impossible 
to "rear the bloody hand" in that place, for the duke 
had left the city rich in all her loyalty. If, therefore, 
my Lord Guilford had represented the matter when very 
young, it militates still more against His Majesty that 
Jeffreys did not return in custody for such an outrageous 
disobedience, the executions being at once suspended: if 
it was mentioned late to the ears of royalty, Roger North 
is hardly borne out, in saying that "orders went to miti- 
gate the proceeding;" and his brother scarcely escapes a 
suspicion of having connived at the great punishment. 



202 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



He says indeed, "What effect follow'd, I know not. I 
am sure of his lordship's intercession to the King on this 
occasion, being told it at the very time by himself." 
The most that can be made of the whole proceeding is, 
that the lord keeper, though at the point of death, had 
discovered the sanguinary measures which were going 
forward, and had advertised the King, who knew better 
than himself what was in hand; and that the monarch 
made a show of wonderful mercy when some hundreds of 
his most obnoxious subjects had been consigned to the 
halter, and when Jeffreys had nothing left but to say, 
as Monsieur Le Sage did afterwards, when Charles XII. 
was killed at the siege of Frederickshall. — "The game 
is up; let us be going." And when we are told, that 
James declared when his throne was in danger, that 
"Jeffreys was an ill man," making a compensation at 
the same time to some person at Sarum, let it not be 
forgotten, that this King would have sacrificed his fa- 
vourite chancellor at that time; first, because, being un- 
popular, he had no further use for him; and next because 
he refused to go all lengths in establishing popery. And 
he actually did sacrifice the judge, for he stole off privily 
at night without acquainting the unlucky chancellor, who 
fully counted upon going with him, whereby he left the 
keeper of his conscience behind, soon to become a cap- 
tive, and at the mercy of an infuriated multitude. If he 
could have exterminated the name of Protestant from 
his dominions, and erected the triumphant host in all his 
cathedrals, James had attained his wish: the prince made 
but a mere tool of his chief justice, who, hating dissent- 
ers, cut them off joyfully with the august permission 
which accompanied him; but seceded most inopportunely, 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 203 

when he found that the Catholic religion was to reign 
"lord of the ascendant." No sooner was it the policy 
of the court to conciliate the dissenters, dictated by that 
subtle courtier William Penn, 1 than Sir Edward Herbert 
went down into the west, a meek, kind judge, who healed 
all the wounds of the preceding year, issued forth the 
most ample promises of pardon, and strove to unite the 
dissenters against the church establishment. But long 
disquisitions are odious; we have therefore determined 
to stop, merely chaining together the few facts follow- 
ing,— 

Which nobody can deny. 

King James put Monmouth to death, and then sent 
out his chief justice to punish some western rebels. He 
refused to respite Lady Lisle for a day, because he had 
promised the said judge that he would not do so. Either 
he sent out an order to save the prisoners after three 
hundred and fifty-one had been hung, — or he made a 
judge, who had disobeyed his orders, lord high chancellor 
of England, tarnished as that person must have been 
with a very massacre, if he had no orders for his con- 
duct. The King, moreover, made a present of a rich 
man to the said judge, and permitted the members of his 
court to enrich themselves at the expense of some poor 
western widows. 

After the strong collateral confirmation which has been 
supplied, the testimony of Burnet, and the dying words 
of Jeffreys will bear a stamp of authenticity which no 
kingly apologist can explain away. 

' King James was heard to say to some one, " William Penn is no 
more a quaker than you are." 



204 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



Oct. 1, 1685. 

Windsor, Sept. 28. 
"His Majesty, taking into his royal consideration "the 
many eminent and faithful services which the Right Ho- 
nourable George, Lord Jeffreys, of Wem, lord chief jus- 
tice of England, had rendered the crown, as well in the 
reign of the late King, of ever-blessed memory, as since 
His Majesty's accession to the throne, was pleased this 
day to commit to him the custody of the great seal of 
England, with the title of Lord Chancellor." 

In December, John Hampden came to his trial, not 
before Jeffreys, according to the report in the State 
Trials, but Sir Edward Herbert, who had succeeded. 
The prisoner's petition for mercy was so abject, and his 
fee of 6000/. to the chancellor so softening, that he ob- 
tained his pardon ; but, it is said, that shame haunted him 
ever afterwards, and in about ten years he cut his throat. 
About this time, also, Dangerfield came to his end. He 
had been tried before Jeffreys shortly after Oates's sen- 
tence, and had judgment to receive such terrible whip- 
pings, that he chose a text for his funeral sermon. But 
that which concerns Jeffreys in the affair of his death, is 
the resolution which -that nobleman persevered in to 
punish the author of it. The truth seems to be, that Mr. 
Frances, a barrister of Gray's Inn, incontinently, and 
certainly indecorously, accosted him after his flogging 
with these words; — "How now, friend! have you had 
your heat this morning?" Dangerfield spat in his face: 
Frances then thrust a bamboo cane into his eye, which, 
according to the evidence of a surgeon, occasioned his 
death. There arc different representations of the whole 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 205 



business, which became at length a popular affair: it is 
said, in one place, that the wounded man died directly ; 
but Bevil Higgons tells us, that he lived so long after- 
wards in Newgate, as to occasion a doubt among the sur- 
geons who attended the coroner's inquest, whether he did 
not die by reason of his punishment. Attempts were 
made to influence the widow of Dangerfield to consent 
that the prisoner should be pardoned ; but she refused, 
although the application was backed by a bribe, and she 
even had an appeal ready. She would have had occa- 
sion too to press her appeal, had it not been for Jeffreys, 
there being a strong disposition at court to overlook the 
matter ; but he posted to Whitehall as soon as he learnt 
the chance of mercy, and declared firmly that Frances 
"must die, for the rabble was throughly heated." And 
so the poor "state martyr was hanged." Yet with all 
this anxiety on the part of Jeffreys to avenge Danger- 
field (the better opinion is, that Frances was a political 
martyr,) the ghost of the whipped sufferer arose, and 
poured forth a lamentation in print, in which the judge, 
who sentenced the body to be scourged, is not spared. 
It begins with 

Revenge! revenge! my injur'd shade begins 
To haunt thy guilty soul, and scourge thy sins. 

A little further on, are these lines : — 

The trembling jury's verdict ought to be, — 
Murder'd at once by Frances and by thee. 

There was also a long, wild elegy published upon 
Thomas Dangerfield, where Jeffreys is dyed still blacker 
than the deepest plungings mentioned in the Dunciad 
would make him. A most unmerciful sentiment is con- 
tained in it: — 
18 



206 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



But since nor friend nor poet can invent 
Deeper damnation for his punishment, 
May he be Jeffreys still, and ne'er repent. 

The Jews are held to be mild in comparison of the 
judge. 

Tho' milder Jews far more good nature have; 
They forty stripes, Jeffreys four hundred gave. 

Poisoning is then imputed to the chief justice: 

Two strings to 's bow, for fear one should not do; 
Stellettos sometimes fail; take poison too. 

This reproach is ridiculous, for the body of Danger- 
field might have appeared bloated after his punishment 
from the severity of the stripes. 

The whip, so unfeelingly dealt, while it reflected great 
discredit upon the person who promoted its use, no less 
disgraced the monarch who could have arrested its terrors. 
There might soon have been a mandate a little more con- 
trolling than the poor solace which was sent to Tutchin, 
"that he must wait with patience;" when, but for an 
acute disease, he had been whipped a morning or two 
afterwards. 

The elegy concludes with such a mountain of curses as 
might weigh down the loftiest head; but as they came 
probably from a near relation who must have written so 
fierce a declamation, there is some slight palliation of the 
matter. 

Posterity will now admit, probably, that truth could 
hardly have shone forth amidst such a vapouring ; and 
we hope, therefore, to gain a better evidence for any 
good qualities we may find in the vilified chancellor, whom 
we are about to introduce, fraught with purse and mace, 
in the next chapter. 



LIFE OF JEFFREY?. 207 



CHAPTER VII. 

The great seal— Conduct of the lord chancellor in parliament— Lord 
Delamere arraigned before the Lords Triers at Westminster — Eccle- 
siastical high commission court — Dr. Sharp — Compton, bishop of Lon- 
don — The chancellor's cause-room— Anecdotes of the lord chancellor 
— Account of Sir John Trevor— Doctrine of passive obedience — Trial 
of the seven bishops — James throws off the mask with regard to his 
religion — Dr. Peachell — University refractoriness — Determined con- 
duct of the mayor of Arundel — Duke of Ormond — The royal dispen- 
sing power— Domestic life of the lord chancellor — Scandalous stories 
of his second lady — Evelyn — Lord Clarendon — Mr. Jeffreys's father — 
Sir John Trevor, speaker of the House of Commons — Anecdote of 
Tillotson — Lord Castlemaine's mission to Rome — Father Petre — Earl 
of Tyrconnel — Acquittal of the bishops — Birth of the Pretender — 
Privy-counsellors present — Legal character of the lord chancellor dis- 
cussed—Sir Basil Firebrass — Gathering of the political storm — Reli- 
gious contest — The city charter — How far lord chancellor Jeffreys is 
personally involved in the national and civic dissensions — Landing of 
William III. — The court of James in confusion. 

"Here, my lord, take it, you will find it heavy," said 
the prophetic King Charles to his lord keeper North, 
when he delivered the seal to that statesman. And Roger 
North relates a confession made by his brother when 
dying, which was, that "he had not enjoy'd one easy 
and contented minute since he had had the seal." Jeffreys 
was enjoying himself over his bottle with some friends 
soon after his new preferment, when one of them told 
him that he would find the business heavy. "No," said 
he, "I'll make it light." What would my lord of Eldon 
give if he could as unconcernedly throw into the balance 
his huge tribunal of bankruptcy, his cabinet and parlia- 



208 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



mentary toils, with the superincumbent weight of equity 
jurisdiction dragging its slow length along ? 

So strongly was the charge of corruption entertained 
against the new chancellor, Lord Jeffreys, that his un- 
willingness to take office has been absolutely asserted; 
and, farther, that a bribe was necessary to induce the 
relinquishment of his scruples. Perhaps this is saying 
too much ; but, whether chief justice, or chief judge in 
the Chancery, his promotion was so much feared and dis- 
liked by the community at large, that no difficulty was 
made of propagating any insidious stories to his disad- 
vantage. And now we find him fairly seated in the great 
chair, quite resolved to be " top fiddler of the town." It 
was by no means the scope of his ambition merely to vin- 
dicate his court from Lord Coke's imputation, who called 
it, Officina justitiee, a workshop to frame writs in ; Jef- 
freys had been a discontented man, if, in his own estima- 
tion, he could not have controlled the common, statute, 
and equity law by a single effort. Boni judicis est am- 
pliare jurisdictionem, 1 was an old maxim, which was des- 
tined to come into fresh remembrance upon this event : 
so that, even in matters within their own province, the 
judges of the common law courts ceased to receive the 
courtesy and decorum which were due to their stations. 
Sir Thomas Jones, then chief justice of the Common Pleas, 
soon felt the power which was above him. 2 Sometimes a 
chancellor will direct an issue to be tried in a court of 
law, that he may have the verdict of twelve men as to 



1 It is the part of a skilful judge to enlarge his jurisdiction. 

2 Jones had obtained this place in defiance of Jeffreys who coveted it, 
one of more profit than the chief place in the King's Bench. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 209 



some particular fact, and this is called a feigned issue. 
A case of this kind came to be heard at the bar of the 
Common Pleas, on -which the plaintiff obtained a verdict 
with the approbation of Sir Thomas, the chief justice, 
and of the whole court. The defendant asked for a new 
trial, saying, that some of the jury had been tampered 
with; but his suggestion failed to meet with the counte- 
nance which he desired, and his motion was therefore 
unanimously refused, as being made merely for the pur- 
pose of delay. It was a matter of some consequence, and 
the defendant was not so easily persuaded to remain quiet. 
He accordingly ventured into Chancery to ask for the 
same thing, and on the same grounds, where he gained a 
very different reception, for he had his motion granted 
presently, and a new trial was "roundly ordered." Yet 
this proceeding, which, if suffered on the sudden, was at 
best a little disrespectful to the other court, was intolera- 
bly seasoned with sallies of wit against the learned per- 
sons who had delivered the judgment, so that there was 
a plain design to mortify them. With a due degree of 
deference to the high authorities from whom he might 
dissent, a chancellor of this day might arrive at a similar 
conclusion, and in so doing, he would not transgress the 
practice of his court; but the keeper of King James's 
seals, steering quite clear of all common civility, was 
pleased to indulge in the most free personalities, and 
never hesitated to accuse his brethren of carelessness in 
the distribution of justice. But the admirable part of 
the affair was its issue; for when the defendant came 
to his second hearing, the plaintiff got a great accession 
of damages from the new jury. 

The conduct of this magistrate of equity shall now be 
18* 



210 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



laid aside for a time, whilst we give some account of him 
upon other occasions. And first with regard to his car- 
riage in the house of Lords. No doubt he imagined that 
the august assembly would bow down before him, and that 
he might soon overawe his co-peers by his bluff figure 
and well-appointed swagger. He had an opportunity of 
making the experiment before he had held the seals two 
months. The King had addressed his parliament in very 
courteous terms ; but in the course of his speech two very 
awkward propositions were developed: one was, that the 
militia were not sufficient, and thence came the dilemma 
of a standing army. The next was, an admission that 
some of his officers had not conformed themselves to the 
tests, and that he would not deprive himself of their ser- 
vices on that account, after the efforts they had made on 
his behalf: whence the dispensing power might easily be 
detected in its most odious forms. Both Houses were 
alarmed at this avowal; but they rendered back their 
thanks to His Majesty; the Lords in totidem verbis, the 
Commons with a proposition to indemnify the popish re- 
cusants, (most unsavoury words for the ear of royalty,) 
and a modified grant. James was warm in his answer ; 
upon which both Lords and Commons proposed to take 
the King's speech into consideration. The latter, how- 
ever, were terrified into an adjournment: for Coke (of 
Derby) was sent to the Tower for saying, "I hope we are 
all Englishmen, and not to be frightened out of our duty 
by a few high words." He was the seconder of the mo- 
tion. But the thing took a very different turn in the 
Lords. Compton, bishop of London, introduced the sub- 
ject there; and the courtiers forthwith took the alarm, 
saying, that as the House had thanked the King for his 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 211 



speech, the sentiments contained therein had been adopt- 
ed as of course. This ingenious snare "was soon laid 
open and rejected; and the test was manfully commented 
upon as the bulwark of liberty. And then came on my 
Lord Jeffreys. He answered the popular speakers as 
though he had been addressing an obstinate jury, or me- 
nacing a termagant prisoner; a carriage so entirely out 
of place, that all his frowns and arrogance were unable 
to beat down the uncompromising argument which the 
other side had made use of: and so, out-voted and "out- 
argued," as Ralph has it, the minister gave way, and a 
day was fixed for investigating the subject. But it was 
to the infinite mortification of Jeffreys that such a crisis 
happened ; and Burnet delights in recounting the defeat 
which he endured. Soon afterwards, the parliament was 
prorogued; and as the great seal was thrown into the 
Thames before the meeting of another, the chancellor 
had no room for improving himself in the tact and method 
of senatorial eloquence. 1 But this smart rebuff seems to 
have had some slight effect upon him ; for being appointed 
to preside at the trial of a peer for treason, he managed, 
though still very tenacious of authority, and intoxicated 
with his power, to deport himself before the assembled 
lords with a decency quite remarkable ; yet, it was evi- 
dent, that after this the peers regarded him with jealousy, 
and mainly suspected that he took "his law from the 
King," according to his motto, as Serjeant. 2 

1 His civility may be compared to that of a bailiff towards a man of 
rank under his arrest, such bailiff having been lately kicked for insolence 
upon a similar event. 

3 John Jeffreys, probably his son, was member for Brecon Town, in 
this parliament. 



212 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



Although the western circuit had been pretty thoroughly 
travelled, there remained some men of noble blood in the 
Tower charged with the late transactions, reserved, as it 
were, to grace the greater triumph, by ransom or by death. 
The escape of these lords has been already explained; 
but as Lord Delamere stood his trial, the manner and 
method of it must have some mention here, as they in- 
volve some strange actions of Lord Jeffreys, white staff 
upon the occasion. 

It had very early suggested itself to the favourite, that 
if he could cause the noble prisoner to be conveyed into 
Cheshire, he would have him most conveniently within 
the sphere of his local influence. The main accusation 
rested on a proposal for a rising in that county ; so that by 
the course intended, a conviction might be quietly ob- 
tained in the very territory of the accused, to the sore 
mortification of his high blood. Besides this, the people 
would be awed, the trial by peers averted, and the 
influence of Jeffreys in the neighbourhood would have 
done the rest. Indeed, some disrespect which had been 
shown him when chief justice of Chester, might now be 
amply avenged — a gratifying crisis not to be sacrificed 
without an effort: therefore, it was boldly declared, that 
the treason having happened within a County Palatine, 
the prosecution must be there. This was said by Jeffreys 
under the King's command to the assembled peers, who 
were indignant that the Lord Delamere should be absent, 
and had addressed the King upon the subject. The bill 
of indictment was then presented and found in Cheshire, 
and so far the plan had succeeded; for had the prisoner 
been tried in the King's Bench, which it is but fair to say 
would have amounted to a breach of privilege, Sir Ed- 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 213 



ward Herbert, a more mild judge, 1 would probably have 
marred the prosecution, by conceding every indulgence, 
and ratifying every excuse consistent with the law. But 
it was soon determined to remove all the proceedings by 
certiorari before a select body of lords at Westminster, 
called Lords Triers. 2 Jeffreys, the lord high steward, 
was somewhat out of his element, for he now no longer 
addressed "mean men," but spoke in the presence of the 
first men in his country, who very little regarded his 
newly-fledged nobility, and would utterly scorn any me- 
nace if he dared employ any. The King and Queen, 
moreover, graced the solemn occasion; an unusual degree 
of polish and courtesy was therefore observable in the 
judge's deportment towards the whole court; yet, in the 
course of his first speech to the accused, he could not 
help thinking how comfortably he would be spared any 
further pains, if a plea of guilty could be obtained; and 
to this end, with a very crafty insinuation of mercy, he 
begged of my lord at the bar, that if he were guilty, "he 
would give glory to God, and make amends to his vice- 
gerent, the King, by a plain and full discovery." But 
Lord Delamere was engaged upon any other subject 
rather than a confession, and indeed, what seemed to 
trouble him the most just then, was whether a peer was 
bound to hold up his hand at the bar like a commoner, 
but this was resolved to his satisfaction: and then he 
asked another question, which he doubtless considered 



1 Yet this Herbert was the man who first proposed to dispense with 
the tests. He had urged the matter to King Charles, who was too shrewd 
to give any encouragement to such a dethroning fantasy. 

2 This selection is abolished by 7 Will. III., so that a nobleman must 
now be tried by all his peers. 



214 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



mainly important: — "I beg your Grace would be pleased 
to satisfy me, whether your Grace be one of my judges 
in concurrence with the rest of the lords?" 

Lord High Steward. — "No, my lord, I am judge of the 
court ; but I am none of your triers." 

The song of the siren could not have enchanted the 
ears of her captives more deliciously. Some delay then 
arose before the prisoner would plead, and at length he 
put in a special plea, which contained two objections to 
the course then pursued : first, he said, that being sum- 
moned to parliament, he ought to be tried by all the peers 
of parliament ; and, secondly, he claimed this privilege 
still more strongly, because the parliament was still con- 
tinuing, and not dissolved. Sir Robert Sawyer, the 
attorney-general, answered the difficulties which were 
started, on which Lord Delamere prayed the aid of coun- 
sel ; but not having any ready, the plea was rejected : 
although, in the case of Edward Fitzharris, four days 
were allowed that prisoner to procure and instruct advo- 
cates. Jeffreys's temper was rising once. 

Lord Delamere. "I hope your Grace will be pleased 
to advise with my lords the peers here present." — Lord 
High Steward. "Good my lord, I hope you that are a 
prisoner at the bar are not to give me direction who I 
should advise with, or how I should demean myself here." 
On which an apology was made him. He was neverthe- 
less somewhat confounded in his new state, and had a 
little committed himself, for he let slip that he thought the 
plea frivolous. 

Lord Delamere saw the blunder at once. " I hope, 
my lord, that the privilege of the peers of England is not 
frivolous." — "Pray, good my lord," returned the discon- 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 215 



corted judge, " do not think I should say any such thing, 
that the privilege of the peers is frivolous." He then 
gave his charge to the peers in a very fulsome harangue ; 
in the course of which the expressions "fierce, froward, 
and fanatical zeal of the late House of Commons," 
" Arch-traitor Monmouth," " hellish and damnable plots," 
could not fail to have pleased the royal auditors. The 
chief evidence for the crown was a man who swore that 
he was introduced to Lord Delamere and two others, with 
a recommendation from Lord Brandon, and that he re- 
ceived money from them. This reward was for carrying 
a message to the Duke of Monmouth, respecting a sum 
of 40,000?. which was wanted to maintain ten thousand 
men, to be levied in Cheshire against King James. But 
however this may have been, he made a decided blunder 
in the date, which gave Lord Delamere an opportunity of 
calling witnesses to prove an alibi. 

This was done most satisfactorily, and the peers gave 
a unanimous verdict of acquittal. They evinced, how- 
ever, a strong dislike to the control of the lord high stew- 
ard, who, on his part, was equally obstinate in insisting 
upon his own supposed rights. The accused desired an 
adjournment, that he might have time to prepare his de- 
fence : the matter was referred to the judges, but some 
lords were determined that the court should withdraw to 
debate the question amongst themselves, alleging that their 
privileges were concerned, though Jeffreys denied that 
privilege was in any way at issue : and they withdrew 
accordingly. The judges were against the adjournment, 
and the lord high steward then chose to discourse of his 
own power : — 

" My lords, I confess I would always be very tender 



216 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 

of the privilege of the peers wherever I find them con- 
cerned ; but truly I apprehend, according to the best of 
my understanding, that this court is held before me : it is 
my warrant that convenes the prisoner to this bar : it is 
my summons that brings the peers together to try him ; 
and so I take myself to be judge of the court. My lords, 
'tis true, may withdraw, and they may call the judges to 
them to assist them, which shows they have an extraordi- 
nary privilege in some cases more before the high stew- 
ard, than juries have in inferior courts in cases of common 
persons." He then went on to say, that he could not 
withdraw with the lords if they desired to consult him, 
but that all questions must be asked of him in open court. 
"This, I confess, my lords," added my lord high steward, 
"has a great weight with me; and I know your lordships 
will be very tender of proceeding in such a case, any way 
but according to law ; for though you are judges of your 
own privileges, yet, with submission, you are not judges 
of the law of this court ; for that I take to be my pro- 
vince." He ended with a wonderfully clement speech. 

" Certainly, my lords, your lordships and I, and all 
mankind, ought to be tender of committing any errors in 
cases of life or death ; and I would be loth, I would assure 
you, to be recorded for giving an erroneous judgment in 
a case of blood, and as the first man that should bring 
in an illegal precedent, the consequence of which may 
extend I know not how far." However, with all this fair 
language, the old heresy was broached again, that the 
testimony of one witness to an overt act of treason, corro- 
borated by other substantial circumstances, was sufficient 
proof of a treason. And this opinion was mentioned in 
the House of Commons some years afterwards, upon the 
bill for attainting Sir John Fcnwick. " It was told him 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 217 



[Jeffreys] then," said a member, "that if ever they met 
him in the House of Lords, he should answer it with his 
head." 

James was exceedingly exasperated against the poor 
witness : the day after the trial he declared that Saxon 
should be first convicted of perjury, and then hanged for 
high-treason. This last threat was not put into execu- 
tion ; but the man was twice pilloried, twice whipped, and 
fined besides for his mistake. 1 

This was the despotic treatment which the new monarch 
loved: his minister was one whom "he delighted to 
honour," because he was content to take his cue so obe- 
diently from the court ; and all things were now arranged 
so as to promise the English a speedy change from free- 
dom and liberty of conscience to the papal and any other 
obnoxious yoke which it might please the Sovereign to 
impose. 

The pulpits were now teeming with discourses against 
popery, for the nation had become seriously alarmed at 
the King's determined inclinations ; and the clergy already 
fancied that other hands would soon shear the fleeces of 
their flocks, while they themselves would be compelled to 
own a divided allegiance. The King was not backward 
to perceive, on his part, the rising temper of the times : 
he had not forgotten the flaming preachments of the 
forty-one, nor the stern hum of the Cromwellians, nor the 
sacred hurricanoes of the Covenanters. So there went 
forth letters mandatory to the bishops, forbidding their 



1 According to the Stuart Papers, it seems that the court really be- 
lieved Saxon's story, and that his discomfiture arose from a mere slip in 
the date. 

19 



218 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



clergy to attempt controversial discussions in public ; 
and having promulged the order, James decided also on 
prescribing the punishment of disobedience. 

The ecclesiastical high commission court, a name lost 
to the British annals since the reign of Charles the First, 
was erected, and seven commissioners 1 were appointed to 
superintend and enforce its powers. The crown expected 
that some severe animadversion would be passed upon 
this new creation, and an answer was therefore at hand. 
It was said, that in the new commission no power was 
given to fine or imprison or tender the oath ex-officio, 2 
and that its judges were enjoined to keep within the bounds 
of ecclesiastical censures ; that the ordinary power of the 
archbishops and bishops had been revived at the Resto- 
ration, although the high commission court of Charles, 
which permitted fine and imprisonment, and the tendering 
the oath ex-officio, was indeed abolished ; that this was there- 
fore a legal constitution, even more so than Doctors' Com- 
mons and the bishops' courts, where the proceedings would 
run in the names of the episcopal judges, whereas this man- 
date ran in the King's name. Most people were obstinate 
enough, however, to think, that the law had been invaded 
upon this occasion ; but in a country where four judges 
had been turned out at once (a circumstance just then of 

' George, Lord Jeffreys, lord chancellor; Sancroft, archbishop of 
Canterbury ; Crew, bishop of Durham ; Sprat, bishop of Rochester ; 
Chief Justice Herbert ; Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, lord treasu- 
rer; Robert, Earl of Sunderland, lord president. The following were 
afterwards added : the Earl of Mulgrave ; Cartwright, bishop of Chester, 
in the room of Sancroft, who declined to act; Chief Justice Wright; Sir 
Thomas Jenner. 

a A perfect inquisition, by which they compelled a man to swear that 
he would answer all questions put to him. In default of obedience, he 
might have been tortured. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 2 19 



recent occurrence) for questioning the royal competency 
of dispensing with the laws ; and where again, a great 
verdict had just been obtained by a defendant, 1 whose 
defence was that the monarch could waive a penal enact- 
ment, as supreme lawgiver; it was not to be expected 
that public opinion would be regarded with any very 
particular respect. Amongst other capabilities with which 
these great commissioners were invested, they were ena- 
bled to summon such as "seemed to be suspected of 
offences ; — to correct, amend, and alter the statutes of 
the universities, churches, and schools ; or, where the 
statutes were lost, to devise new ones," &c. It was no 
small aggravation of the horrors which the clergy had 
already attached to this junto, that it could not assemble 
without the lord chancellor. Jeffreys, consequently, with 
all his grandeur and majesty, was the awful genius of the 
place. Nor did he long remain unemployed ; and very 
pleasant it seemed to him, that he was again so highly 
elevated as to mortify great dignitaries at his capricious 
pleasure. Sharp, the rector of St. Giles's, who is called 
the "railing parson," 2 had expressed his contempt of such 
as could be converted by Romish arguments. He was 
constantly inveighing against popish errors ; and Comp- 
ton, bishop of London, who had so obnoxiously moved the 
consideration of the royal speech, was his diocesan. — 
These were fit subjects to begin upon. The King sent 
forth a mandate to the bishop to suspend Dr. Sharp ; the 
bishop very civilly declined, on the ground of his inability 
to condemn any man who had not been cited, and heard 
in his defence. This happened in August, 1686 ; and 



1 Sir Edward Hales, prosecuted in an action of debt by a coachman, 
for not taking the test. 2 Father Orleans. 



220 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 

the high court had been formed in April. It was deemed 
proper that the new terrors and penalties should be 
inflicted upon these two holy offenders, though Sharp had 
been the bearer of the bishop's letter, and had made an 
effort to save himself by very tame submissions. Accord- 
ingly, on the 4th of August, the lord chancellor was at 
his place in the Commission Court, and the bishop made 
his appearance. There was but one question, "Why did 
you not obey the King ?" But Compton was disposed 
to procrastinate, and so he asked for time till November, 
as counsel were absent on the circuit. "Hah! that's 
unreasonable," quoth Jeffreys; "His Majesty's business 
cannot admit of such delays ; methinks a week should be 
enough : What say your lordships, is not a week enough ?" 
And their lordships said that a week was enough. The 
bishop complained that he could not get a sight of the 
commission ; but the answer was, that " all the coffee- 
houses had it for a penny a piece." On the ninth day, 
the business was resumed, when the bishop declared, that 
a whole week's search had, with difficulty, put him in 
possession of the authority which had been mentioned as 
so common in every coffee-house. "My lord, when I 
told you our commission was to be seen in every coffee- 
house," says my lord chancellor, "I did not speak with 
any design to reflect on your lordship, as if you were a haun- 
ter of coffee-houses : I abhorred the thoughts of it; and in- 
tended no more by it, but that it was common in the town." 
This vaunt of the chancellor's got the bishop a fort- 
night's further indulgence. But, at length, the day must 
arrive for an answer to "Why did you not obey 
the King?" And at the appointed time the spiritual 
peer came, attended by four doctors of the law as his 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 221 



counsel. But the civilians made a very left-handed de- 
fence for their client : indeed, the first, Dr. Oldish, ven- 
tured beyond the precincts of his scarlet tribe, and was 
rash enough to affirm, that " if an attorney takes a man's 
word for his appearance, there would lie no action against 
the attorney." " Cujus contrarzum" (which means, only 
just the contrary,) exclaimed Jeffreys, who was pleased 
to advertise the doctor of the existence of actions for 
escapes. Some of the commissioners were disposed to 
accept the bishop's submission, but the King plainly told 
Rochester that unless he gave way, his treasurer's white 
staff was gone. Most of the others would have agreed 
upon the question being put, that the bishop had done 
treason, if the King pleased ; and he was forthwith sus- 
pended by a formal and solemn sentence, together with 
his subject rector, Dr. Sharp, both during the royal plea- 
sure. They dared not meddle with his revenues, notwith- 
standing, for that being a measure affecting tempora- 
lities, the matter would have been translated into the 
King's Bench, where Herbert presided ; and as he was not 
satisfied with the sentence of suspension, he might proba- 
bly have rendered the bishop justice, which at that time 
would have been a precedent highly inconvenient. 

The parson of St. Giles's was soon relieved, but the 
prelate remained under the ban till the fright about the 
Prince of Orange became very considerable, and then all 
the great rough riders were unhorsed: Jeffreys was sent 
to the corporation of London with their long-lost charter, 
and the people of London saw their bishop very civilly 
restored to his episcopal functions. 

The chancellor showed himself quite equal to Serjeant 
Bradshaw, who presided at King Charles's trial. Both 
19* 



222 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



the accused desired to speak, the bishop before, the mo- 
narch after sentence ; both were repulsed most unceremo- 
niously: — 

Lord Bishop. — My lord, may I have leave to speak 
before sentence is read ? 

Lord Chancellor. — My lord, we have heard you and 
your counsel already. 

King Charles to Bradshaw. — Will you hear me a word, 
sir ? 

Bradshaw. — Sir, you are not to be heard after the 
sentence. 

King. — No, sir? 

Bradshaw. — No, sir. By your favour, sir. Guard, 
withdraw your prisoner. 

King. — I may speak after sentence, by your favour, 
sir ! I may speak after sentence, ever. By your favour ! 
— Hold ! the sentence, sir : I say, sir, I do — I am not 
suffered to speak. — Expect what justice other people 
will have. And then he was carried away by the guard. 
And now, not as suitors, but as admiring reporters of 
the greatness and dominion of our Jeffreys, we must 
return to the court of Chancery, from whence so many 
think themselves too happy to be emancipated. 

He held his court at Dr. Shepherd's Chapel in Duke 
street, Westminster, and made the adjoining houses 
towards the park his residence. But just before we relate 
the judicial extravagancies of this legal despot, it will not 
be thought out of place, as we are upon the subject of 
houses, if a specimen of his dealings respecting them, and 
of the treatment with which he would annoy persons who 
had an equitable claim upon him, be briefly told. Moses 
Pitt, a bookseller, brother of the Western Martyrologist, 
complains very strongly against his tenant, the chancellor. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 223 



This gentleman had been captivated by the boundless 
promises of building ; and amongst other dwellings which 
he established in the vicinity of the Park, was one at the 
south end of Duke street, of a superior order, which he 
let, with coach-houses and stables, to the judge at 300?. 
per annum. Jeffreys came with the rich Alderman Dun- 
comb to see the house ; and observing a vacant piece of 
ground adjoining, he said he would have a cause-room 
(by which he meant a chancery tribunal) built upon it. 1 
Pitt said, that the ground was the King's property ; but 
it was agreed that James should be importuned for the 
gift of it, and that it should be made over to the builder 
by grant for 99 years at a peppercorn rent, in considera- 
tion of which the builder would erect the desired cause- 
room. It seems, that in addition to the court which was 
required, Mr. Pitt raised two large wings on either side 
of the chancellor's house, which cost him altogether about 
4000Z. and that his tenant never paid a farthing for the 
fitting-up of the new erections, and the necessary offices 
which appertained to the cause-room. 2 

However, when the whole was finished, the promised 
grant was looked for very anxiously, and very respect- 
fully demanded; but Jeffreys found means of evading 



1 " It is easily known," says Pennant, " by a large flight of stone 
steps, which his royal master permitted to be made into the park adja- 
cent, for the accommodation of his lordship. These steps terminate 
above in a small court, on three sides of which stands the house. The 
cause-room was afterwards converted into a place of worship, called 
Duke street Chapel, and is on the left. When Jeffreys found it inconve- 
nient to go to Westminster or Lincolns'-inn, he made use of this court." 

2 " In three or four months' time I built the two wings of that great 
house which is opposite to the bird-cages, with the stairs and tarrass, 
&c, which said building cost me about 4000/. with all the inside work," 
&c— Pitt's Cry of the Oppressed, p. 22. 



224 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



the fulfilment of his pledge from time to time till the 
architect's patience was exhausted, and King William had 
approached too near to render the chancellor's downfall 
by any means equivocal. Finding his ruin at hand, and a 
speedy flight necessary, he sent for several tradesmen ; 
and Mr. Pitt, the landlord, who had ever found him quite 
inaccessible, although a near neighbour, contrived to get 
into the great man's parlour, and there renewed per- 
sonally his long neglected claim. " I shall leave your 
house," quoth Jeffreys, " and I shall not take away the 
ground and building, with me." This was the utmost in- 
dulgence of the answer. Half a year's rent was then 
nearly due, but Pitt expressed himself much more anx- 
iously respecting the grant, than the payment of the ar- 
rears. The next day the chancellor departed to the Je- 
suit Petre's lodging at Whitehall. 1 It turned out, that 
Sir Edward Hales, a vast favourite at court, the same 
who gained so great a triumph in behalf of the dispen- 
sing power, had begged away this ground from Jeffreys ; 
so that the judge, perceiving how impossible it was to 
complete his contract, shuffled out of it in the best man- 
ner he was able. 2 The learned counsel who attend the 

1 1688, Nov. 29. " In the morning, I went to see my lord chancellor : 
he now lodgeth at the duke's old little chamber at Whitehall." — Cla- 
rendon's Diary. 

3 The history of the case was this : Pitt, when he received this pro- 
mise from Jeffreys, discovered that John Webb, the King's fowl-keeper, 
had a grant of the land from Charles II. during life; and thereupon gave 
him a consideration for a great part of it. Then Sir Edward Hales got 
it from the King, which overturned the chancellor's pledge; and though 
Sir Edward seems to have paid half a year's rent to Mr. Pitt for a par- 
cel of this land, which was used as garden-ground, he, in common with 
some others who had recognised Pitt as the landlord, refused all subse- 
quent payments. This unfortunate architect and bookseller, after having 
spent 12,000/. in the improvement of buildings at Westminster, was 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 225 



high court of Chancery at the present clay, who rather 
give than take the law from the considerable individuals 
who preside there, can scarcely form an idea of the dis- 
respect with which their quondam brethren were treated in 
the reign of James. We have seen how Jeffreys, when 
chief of the King's Bench, disregarded their just pre- 
tensions to a courteous reception; how he set at naught 
their high blood and birth, and held as valueless the ho- 
nourable stock from whence the larger number sprang. 
And truly no greater share of civility was reserved for 
the advocates in equity : the furious lecture of a quarter 
or half an hour, proportioned to the offence of the pa- 
tient, was of daily occurrence. There was no room for 
boasting on the part of those whom he occasionally spared. 
— "This is yours," they would drily say; "my turn will 
be to-morrow." 1 His angry opposition, however, to one 
custom would probably be lauded by the public press of 
this day. Six, eight, or ten of the best counsel would 
be retained on a side, and of course each would indulge 
the court with a view of the case. This, doubtless, was 
a tiresome practice, and called for the most trying pa- 
thrown into prison, where he remained long enough to be sensible of 
the dreadful enormities which were perpetrated on the persons of poor 
debtors at that period. — See his Cry of the Oppressed, in two parts. He 
was a man of considerable enterprise, as may be collected from the 
statement already given ; and moreover, he took the theatre at Oxford 
for the purpose of printing his Atlas, in twelve volumes, folio : an un- 
dertaking which was fraught with ruin. Jeffreys's large house was let 
to the three Dutch ambassadors, who came from Holland to congratulate 
King William upon his accession in 1689. It was afterwards used for 
the admiralty-office, until the middle of King William's reign. 

1 Sir John Trevor, the master of the rolls, treated the counsel with 
equal freedom. He said something to his nephew, a very promising 
young lawyer, which cut him so severely, that he died in consequence. 



226 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



tience ; but the new chancellor soon decided against it. 
"It was troublesome — it was impertinent — he could not 
bear it — it was all repetition ; and, therefore, he would 
not hear it." 1 Yet in the progress of these sallies, he 
sometimes broke loose so wildly as to be obliged to beg 
pardon, which he would do to the great satisfaction and 
amusement of the audience. But if the ornaments of 
the court met with this unsightly violation, what might 
not the unfortunate attorneys expect ? What might be 
the situation of the still less respected suitor ? Here Jef- 
freys was indeed himself; and often verified his own ob- 
servation, that he would "give a lick with the rough side 
of his tongue." 

A city attorney had a petition filed against him; and 
whether or not he had done wrong, it appears that 
some one had threatened him with my lord chancellor ; 
an admirable bugbear beyond question at that time of 
day. "My lord chancellor ! " returned the citizen ; "I 
made him." This very natural vaunt was put carefully 
into an affidavit, and read over to the judge. "Well," 
says that nobleman, "then I will lay my maker by the 
heels." And the patron of the young Hicks's-hall penny- 
less advocate was sent to jail. Another very sharp de- 
cision against a solicitor is recorded. The lawyer was 
ordered to give up certain papers in a cause, some of which 
had got into the hands of his client, and, in fact, were 
quite out of his reach; but, finding that the master in 

1 In the new act of parliament which has been propounded for the 
amendment of the Chancery practice, a proposition has been introduced 
to limit the number of counsel on either side. The evil alluded to rarely 
occurs in the King's Bench ; and in the court of Common Pleas only two 
Serjeants are accustomed to address the bench. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 227 



Chancery had reported him for disobedience, he made an 
application to the court, stating the hardship, and his 
readiness to do any thing that could be reasonably re- 
quired of him. This was, nevertheless, a trifling with 
the high order, and the unlucky solicitor found his way 
to the Fleet. But half an hour afterwards the chancellor 
called the registrar, and bade him inform the master that 
some arrangement must be made for the performance of 
the order, and that the master should exercise his discre- 
tion. On this the counsel for the prisoner took courage ; 
and after several wily insinuations for his client, such as 
that the end of the motion for papers had been obtained, 
and that the solicitor had acted as well as he could under 
the circumstances, he begged that the rule for the com- 
mitment might be rescinded. Jeffreys. " Sir, I make no 
new order: I only add to what I have already pro- 
nounced." And the man remained in custody. Instances 
have been remembered of his placing even counsel them- 
selves in the safe guardianship of the Fleet prison, and 
this for errors in judgment ; whilst he sent men, wo- 
men, and children promiscuously to the warden, in a pro- 
portion of ten to one as compared with the commitments 
of his predecessors. 

His bare threats, however, were no small punishments ; 
at least in this nervous age we should be apt to think so : 
and although the great judge made a common practice 
of uttering them, it is agreed that his countenance be- 
tokened most fearfully the likelihood of their execution. 
A poor scrivener felt this awful influence, when he op- 
posed a petition for relief against a bail bond. The 
plaintiff's bill was about to be dismissed, and the scri- 
vener would have gone off triumphant; but one of the 



228 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



counsel against him very waggishly said, that this man 
was a strange fellow, sometimes going to church, some- 
times to conventicles; in fact, "it was thought he was a 
trimmer." Jeffreys' old recollections revived in a mo- 
ment. " A trimmer ? " said he ; "I have heard much of 
that monster, but never saw one. Come forth, Mr. Trim- 
mer; turn you round, and let us see your shape." The 
defendant was frightened out of his senses ; and lucky it 
was for him when the bill against him was dismissed with 
costs, so that he could go his way from the court. " How 
did you come off? " said a friend of his, as he came into 
the hall. " Come off? I am escaped from the terrors of 
that man's face, which I would scarce undergo again to 
save my life ; and I shall certainly have the frightful im- 
pression of it as long as I live." The sequel of the his- 
tory will show how true this saying was, and how fatal 
this tirade had been to the chancellor's welfare. It cost 
him his life. 

Sir John Trevor had now succeeded Sir John Churchill 
as master of the rolls : he had been fostered by Jeffreys, 
and owed his elevation to that powerful favourite; but 
far from bending to the will of his patron with the abject 
submission which was expected, he was bold enough to 
turn again when trampled upon, and had even the hardi- 
hood to look with an ambitious eye towards the great 
seal. Strange to say, he had some chance of supplant- 
ing his master ; but as he is connected, in some measure, 
with the chancellor's private life at this time, a more full 
account of him, and of the disputes which he maintained 
in defence of his jurisdiction, shall be deferred, till we 
come presently to detail the little that can now be ascer- 
tained of the judge's domestic history. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 229 



In 1687, Jeffreys had another opportunity of indulging 
his master's spleen against the church, and of upholding 
the dispensing power which was the darling aim of his 
sovereign. To attain this end he had laboured extremely 
in the previous year; indeed, the monarch himself has in- 
formed us of the zeal with which his chancellor acted, 
how he summoned the judges, and enforced the doctrine 
of passive obedience as part of the English law, till all 
the twelve, saving one, 1 declared themselves converts to 
his arguments, or, which was more probable, bowed before 
an influence which could presently strip off their ermine. 2 

1 Sir Thomas Street, judge of the Common Pleas. He was first made 
a baron of the Exchequer, and thence advanced to the Common bench. 
Lord Clarendon attempted to patronize this judge at the Revolution, and 
intended to have presented him to the prince ; but meeting with Lord 
Coote, he was dissuaded from doing so. "While I was in the outward 
room," says the noble journalist, " my Lord Coote came to me, and told 
me he was sorry to see me patronize Street. I told his lordship I had 
long known the judge, and that I took him to be a very honest man. My 
lord answered to this effect : — I know he did not join in the judgment for 
the dispensing power : he has married my relation; but he is a very ill 
man. I have given the prince a true character of him," &c. When 
Street came the next day to Lord Clarendon, he was told that the prince 
had ill impressions of him, and was advised to wait a little; which he 
did long enough, as far as related to the restoration of his place, for he 
was never made a judge again. 

a It should be kept in mind, that in delineating the extraordinary cha- 
racter of Jeffreys, we say decidedly that he would go nearly all lengths 
for the sake of his place; but that he would never desert his religion, 
though, under the apprehension of disgrace, he certainly persecuted its 
functionaries upon occasion. In the course of an inquiry which took 
place before the House of Commons in 1689, this power of stripping off 
the ermine was most strictly proved in the cases of Baron Nevil and 
Judge Powell. The speaker asked the reasons of their discharge. 
Nevil said, he was sent for to Chiffins's chambers, when the King came 
in with a paper in his hand, and asked his opinion upon the dispensation, 

20 



230 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



Devoted to the Catholic tenets, James now resolved to 
bear the mask no longer; the precepts of his mother 
church swayed him with an absolute dominion, and these 

The baron said, he thought the King could not dispense with the penal 
laws, but that he would consider of it. Jeffreys then took up the affair, 
and sent for the judge several times; but received a positive declaration 
from him against the King's wishes. Street and Holloway were with 
Nevil at different times upon the subject; and notwithstanding the chan- 
cellor's long harangues, and disapproval of the reasons, they maintained 
the same resolution. When Judge Holloway concurred, it was in the 
presence of the King, Jeffreys, Sunderland, Rochester and Godolphin. 
The chancellor at length sent for Baron Nevil to his house, and said that 
if he persisted he must expect to be discharged; and seven or eight days 
after he had his quietus. To a subsequent question the baron replied, 
that the chancellor managed the whole thing. Sir John Powell thought 
he was turned out for his opposition to the dispensing power, and an opi- 
nion against the crown in the case of a quo warranto. He said, that 
Jeffreys was present at the consideration of these decisions in private, 
and took an active part in bringing the judges over to the royal will. But 
Powell was inexorable; and he had the honour of being acquainted with 
his discharge in the first instance by the chancellor, who told him, at his 
house, that he was sorry for it, but would not send the patent of revoca- 
tion till the end of the term. — " And I sat out the whole term," added 
Powell. 

Sir Edward Nevil seems to have been a very honest judge : he con- 
trived to escape in those days with very little observation, and was re- 
warded with his old place in the Exchequer when King "William re- 
turned. He was afterwards promoted to the bench in the Common 
Pleas, and died in 1705, at Hammersmith, August 8. 

We have had three judges named Powell, and they were contempora- 
ries. The first was the gentleman alluded to above; a man of conside- 
rable abilities and integrity. He once laid a blame on a brother judge 
(Holloway,) which the latter denied and retorted the charge upon 
Powell. It was upon the much worn subject of the dispensing power. 
Powell said he was at some distance from his brother, and thought that 
he assented to the King's demand; Holloway, on the contrary, asserted 
that he had never agreed to such an opinion, and he is certainly acquitted 
of this by the testimony of others. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 231 



prompted him to bring back his backsliding subjects to 
the pure faith of the Virgin. It had been discovered 



Powell was in disgrace for the resolution he displayed at the trial of 
the seven bishops, where he zealously and successfully strove in their 
favour. The following curious interference is related to have taken 
place on the bench on that occasion. The Solicitor-general Williams 
was adverting to the dispensation, upon which Powell spoke aside to 
the chief justice, — "My Lord, this is wide, Mr. Solicitor would impose 
upon us : let him make it out, if he can, that the King has such a power j 
and answer the objections made by the defendant's counsel." 

Wright, chief justice — " Brother, impose upon us ? He shall not im- 
pose upon me; I know not what he may upon you: for my part, I do 
not believe one word he says." 

Sir John Powell was the only judge of the twelve in Westminster- 
hall when this famous libel case was contested, who was restored to the 
bench. But he was called to account for the sentence passed upon the 
Earl of Devonshire ;. and severely questioned by the House of Lords. 
The noble earl struck Colonel jCulpeper in the King's palace with a 
stick, for some affront which had been given him: upon which he was 
compelled to give bail in the King's Bench to the amount of 30,000/. 
personally, with four sureties bound in penalties of 5000/. each. He 
pleaded guilty to the information exhibited against him, and was fined 
30,000/.; and Powell was implicated in this exorbitant mulct. The 
judge declared he was very sorry; that he had been misguided by 
books; that he conceived 3000/. fine enough, and begged Lord Devon- 
shire's pardon. 

Sir Robert Wright followed in the same mercy-begging strain, saying, 
that the large fine came, according to the course of the court, from the 
puisne judge first. Holloway tried to show that all four judges were 
equally guilty. Allibone was dead. But the lords had possessed them- 
selves of certain information, which induced them to ask whether this 
enormous fine had not been privately cogitated and agreed upon before 
they came into court. Wright denied it flat. Holloway prevaricated, 
and said, they had no orders from the King or the chancellor about it. — 
" But," said Mr. Justice Powell, " Sir Richard Holloway may remem- 
ber, there was a discourse of the fine, five or six days before, at the lord 
chancellor's, where Sir Robert Wright, Sir Richard Holloway, Sir Ri- 
chard Allibone, and himself were." Then Holloway declared he did 



232 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



that Dr. Lightfoot 1 had not taken the oaths when he was 
admitted to his master's degree at Cambridge; and this 
afforded a very convenient precedent for sending a can- 
didate to that university for the degree of M. A., who 
should be sheltered against the usual ceremonies by the 
King's dispensation. Accordingly, Alban Francis, a Be- 
nedictine monk, armed with a letter under the sign-ma- 
nual, presented himself at Cambridge, for the purpose of 
having the degree conferred upon him. But the vice- 
chancellor, Dr. Peachell, or Rachel, as some call him, 
finding that the mandate required not only the dignity 
which was sought, and to which no objection would have 



not remember that; and Wright said, they did not meet about the fine. 
However, upon this, Sir John Powell told the discourse; and it was, that 
Jeffreys first proposed 20,000/., but afterwards said, it had better be 
30,000/., and then the King might abate 10,000/. Sir John added, that 
he expressed his dislike to this before the other judges, but not before 
the chancellor. The lords voted the sentence a breach of privilege; but 
Powell was allowed to retain his place in the Common Pleas, which he 
held till the summer circuit in 16^6, when he died at Exeter. 

Thomas Powel came up from the Exchequer, to succeed his name- 
sake in 1668; but continued a few months only, and was entirely laid 
aside. 

John Powell, junior, called, by way of distinction there, of Gloucester, 
(there being two John Powells in the Common Pleas at the same time,) 
was a judge very eminent for his learning. He came up successively 
from the Exchequer and Common Pleas into the King's Bench, where 
he sat a great many years, and proved a most able assistant to the lord 
chief justice Holt. He died at the latter end of Queen Anne's reign. 
These are but mere samples of the promotions of puisne judges, so much 
objected against of late. It is not for the author to presume to suggest 
any thing here; but such as will take the trouble to examine the eleva- 
tions of judges, will find the custom of advancing them entirely identi- 
fied with the constitution. 

1 Most probably the great rabbinical scholar and learned writer. He 
was a prebendary of Ely, and rector of Much Munden, in Hertfordshire. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 23< 



been offered, but that it was to be given without the ad- 
ministration of an oath, quickly determined upon a re- 
spectful opposition to a measure so novel and insidious. 
So, after various expressions of their dislike to the pro- 
ceeding, the members of the university, after admitting 
some one to the degree of doctor of physic, who took the 
oaths, sent to Mr. Francis, and declared their readiness 
to admit him also, on condition of his submitting to the 
same ordeal. But Father Francis of course declined to 
do this, insisting as he did upon the King's dispensation ; 
and, therefore, he was refused, upon which he went to 
Whitehall to make his complaint in form. A second let- 
ter came down some time afterwards, upon which Dr. 
Peachell wrote to the Duke of Albemarle, then chancel- 
lor, begging him to represent the illegality of the pro- 
posed admission to the King. His Majesty highly re- 
sented this obduracy as he considered it; and the conse- 
quence was a summons from the awful ecclesiastical com- 
mission to the vice-chancellor and senate, commanding 
the former to appear in person, the latter by themselves, 
or their deputies. 

The sting of this body was the all-powerful chancellor : 
he was so admirably calculated to intimidate offenders, 
that, as we have elsewhere mentioned, the court could 
not be convened without him. The vice-chancellor, ac- 
cording to Burnet, was an honest, but a weak man ; in- 
deed his imbecility is evident by his starving himself at 
the Revolution after a rebuke which Archbishop Sancroft 
gave him for drunkenness j 1 so that a more unfit man 



1 He tried to resume his eating functions, after three days of absti 
nence; but nature refused, and so he died. 



20^ 



234 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



could scarcely have been found at this juncture, when 
the rights and privileges of so venerable an assembly 
were to be called critically into question. Nevertheless, 
every thing was to take place with due ceremony, and a 
show of as much respect as the commissioners could make 
use of; and the Head was in decency compelled once 
again to throw the lambskin over the wolf's shoulders. 

On the 21st of April, the judges and the parties sum- 
moned made their appearance, and the burden of the 
questions on that day was simply, "Why did you not 
obey the King's command?" However, the vice-chan- 
cellor obtained with some pains the delay of a week. At 
the next meeting the university delivered in an answer 
to the charge, and in about ten days from that time all 
met again for the purpose of deciding the subject. Jef- 
freys, terrible even in smiles, scared all the wits of Dr. 
Peachell with the first question, — " Pray what was the 
oath?" The Doctor had forgotten the oath which he 
took when he was made vice-chancellor. At last he 
stammered out: — "I cannot call to mind the very words 
of the oath, but the substance of it is this; — that I should 
well and faithfully prtestare, or administrare munus, or 
officium Procancellarii." 

Lord Ch. — " Ay, munus, or officium; well, what then ?" 

Then the vice-chancellor said that the office was de- 
clared by the laws of the land. Jeffreys was desirous of 
establishing the fact, that masters of arts had been made 
without taking oaths, with the sanction of vice-chancelloi's 
who had taken the same oath as Dr. Peachell; and he 
pressed the doctor with Lightfoot's case. 

Lord Ch. — "Don't you remember any master of arts 
made without oaths?" Dr. Cook (a doctor of the civil 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 235 

law who interposed now and then, and seemed to be the 
main stay of the vice-chancellor) — "Not under the quality 
of a university nobleman, my lord." 

Lord Ch. — "Nay, good doctor, you never were vice- 
chancellor yet; when you are, we may consider you." 

The civilians had no chance with Jeffreys. Cook was 
soon at his post again. " My lord, Dr. Lightfoot did sub- 
scribe." — Lord Ch. "What subscription do you mean?" 
Dr. Cook. "To the thirty-nine articles, and the first of 
them is the King's supremacy." — Lord Ch. "Is sub- 
scribing swearing, doctor?" And so he was silenced for 
that time. Then Mr. Stanhope began, but he was stopped 
in the outset. 

Lord Ch. — "Nay, look you now, that young gentle- 
man expects to be vice-chancellor too : when you are, sir, 
you may speak; but till then, it will become you to for- 
bear." It was impossible for any man to have a fairer 
object for his raillery than this Dr. Peachell. After a 
strict examination of the unfortunate Head, the noble 
lord fell upon Dr. Smoult, the professor of casuistical di- 
vinity, who had carried up the opinion of the non-regent 
house regarding Francis. — Lord. Ch. "And pray, sir, 
who are you that you should be thought fit to represent 
a whole house ? why should they choose you rather than 
any body else?" — Dr. Smoult. "My lord, I suppose be- 
cause I was one of the seniors." — Lord Ch. "One of 
the seniors ! if you come to that, why was not the very 
senior chosen?" — Dr. Smoult. "I cannot tell, my lord; 
they came to me." — Vice-Ch. "My lord, he is one of 
our professors." — Lord Ch. "Nay, when I ask you 
questions, they prompt you, and now you prompt them ; 
but I must tell you, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, you ought to 



236 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



take an account of what is done in the house yourself 
and not from others." Soon afterwards Jeffreys became 
tired of all argument and explanation; and having made 
a blunder which was corrected in open court by the 
bishop of Rochester, one of the commissioners, a circum- 
stance which by no means improved his temper, he cut 
short another deputy from the university, who was trying 
to elucidate some act which took place there, with — " Ay, 
sir, we took both what was done, and what was not done ; 
therefore withdraw." Poor Dr. Peachell was turned out 
of his high office, and suspended from the headship of 
Magdalen College; but, notwithstanding, Dr. Balderson, 
the new vice-chancellor, being a very spirited man, 
Father Francis was refused. 

The chancellor had now established himself not only 
as the head, but the bull-dog of his party: he was ever 
zealous to worry all who were not within the sacred fold, 
and approved himself a most fitting successor of that 
worthy person, — 

Who still his clenched argument would end 
With this home thrust, — he is not Caesar's friend. 

The courtiers soon turned their wrath against the other 
Magdalen College in the sister university, where the 
temperate Dr. Hough had been acknowledged as presi- 
dent by a large majority, in opposition to the royal man- 
date, which directed that one Anthony Farmer should be 
chosen. This was a man of so ill a reputation, that his 
patrons were at last ashamed of him, although he pro- 
fessed the utmost affection for the popish cause. To say 
that the inveteracy of the Fellows in adhering to their 
choice would be the means of bringing; them before the 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 237 



ecclesiastical inquisition, and that Jeffreys would be at 
his post, prepared to repudiate the new Head, and to 
punish the disobedient fraternity, is to relate a history 
most consistent with the arbitrary wishes of the Sove- 
reign. But the angry peer transcended himself upon 
this occasion ; for in place of a weak and watery vice- 
chancellor, he met with a doctor who bearded him on the 
throne of his holy office. The name of this college 
champion was Fairfax, and the manner of his resistance 
presented a scene which cannot but be classed with the 
ridiculous, though the countenance of the judge, indeed, 
changed from an expression of the most fawning benig- 
nity to the sternest threatenings of vengeance. 

"We are told that the university put in an answer to 
the charge of disregarding the King's recommendation, 
but that Dr. Fairfax's signature to this defence was 
wanting. Jeffreys, imagining no less than that he had 
found at least one man who had separated himself from 
the bed of heretics, was in ecstasies ; and on the doctor's 
applying to him for leave to explain his reasons for de- 
clining to subscribe the answer, said on the instant, "Ay, 
this looks like a man of sense and a good subject: let's 
hear what he will say." — "I don't object to the answer," 
said Fairfax, "because it is the vindication of my col- 
lege: I go further; and as according to the rules of the 
ecclesiastical courts, a libel 1 is given to the party that he 
may know the grounds of his accusation, I demand that 
libel, for I do not know otherwise wherefore I am called 
here; and besides, this affair should be discussed in West- 



' The same writing as a declaration at common law, intimating the 
nature of the charge against the defendant or party libelled against. 



238 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



minster-hall." — "You are a doctor of divinity, not of 
law," exclaimed the disconcerted judge ; that smile, which 
had bewitched so many hapless defendants into an una- 
vailing though ingenuous confession, being now pursed 
up. " By what commission or authority do you sit here ?" 
rejoined the undaunted Fellow. As long as Jeffreys 
could enjoy the pleasure of indulging his pretensions to 
special pleading by quibbling at the weaknesses of de- 
fendants, he could preserve a tolerable share of humour, 
though at the expense of those upon whom he might 
exercise it; but here was a man, not only emancipating 
himself from the answer which would be a favourable sub- 
ject for the judge's raillery, but absolutely questioning 
the very right and essence of his dominion. So he broke 
out: — "Pray what commission have you to be so impu- 
dent in court? This man ought to be kept in a dark 
room. Why do you suffer him without a guardian? 
Why did you not bring him to me to beg him? Pray let 
the officers seize him." 1 



1 King James was not more polished in his behaviour than his chan- 
cellor. He very officiously went to Oxford in person, to expostulate 
with his rebellious college; and after remonstrating with the chief men 
of it, he addressed them thus, while they were kneeling to him, and 
begging for mercy and liberty of conscience: — 

"Ye have been a stubborn, turbulent college; I have known you to be 
so this six-and-twenty years: you have affronted me in this. Is this 
your Church-of-England loyalty? One would wonder to find so many 
Church-of-England men in such a business! Go home, and show your- 
selves good members of the Church of England : get you gone ! Know, 
I am your King! I will be obey'd, and I command you to be gone. 
Go, and admit the Bishop of Oxon Head, principal, what d'ye call it of 
your college; (one that stood by said, President,) I mean president of 
the college. Let them that refuse it look to it; they shall feel the 
weight of their Sovereign's displeasure." 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 239 



The college continuing contumacious, it was left to the 
Bishop of Chester, Chief Justice Wright, 1 (a creature and 
protegd of Jeffreys) and Baron Jenner, of punning me- 
mory, to subdue them ; and the matter ended with the ex- 
pulsion of seventy-five Fellows, and the installation of 
papists in their room. 

Yet, notwithstanding this turbulence and vapouring 
on the part of Lord Jeffreys, no man better knew the 
world, and the particular respect which one member of 
society, whether public or private, owes to another. The 
following is as brilliant an example as can be furnished, 
not only of this strong sense of propriety, but of the com- 
mand of passion in a man who commonly allowed no 
bounds to his resentment. There being a contested elec- 
tion for Arundel, the government showed great anxiety 
that the court candidate should be returned, and Jeffreys 
went down to further this object. The mayor, an at- 
torney of good character and fortune, was the returning 
officer, and he did not fail to notice the busy, interfering 
chancellor intriguing at the hustings for every feasible 
vote. But he determined on concealing his knowledge 
of the great political person present. With inviolable 
firmness he impartially scrutinized the pretensions of 
every man who came up to poll ; till, at length, having 
rejected one of the court voters, Jeffreys rose up in a 
furious passion, and declared that the vote should be ad- 



' Like master like man. And so the chief justice followed, longo sed 
jiroximus intervallo, at the heels of the chancellor. Mr. Fulham, one 
of the Fellows, received this repartee from Wright: "Pray, who's the 
best lawyer, you or I? Your Oxford law is no better than your Oxford 
divinity: if you've a mind to a posse comitalus, you may have one soon 
enough." 



240 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



mitted; "I am the lord chancellor of this realm," said 
the enraged nobleman. The mayor, surveying him with 
scorn, thus replied: "Your ungentlemanlike behaviour 
convinces me it is impossible you should be the person 
you pretend; were you the chancellor, you would know 
that you have nothing to do here, where I alone preside. 
Officer, turn that fellow out of court." The crier pro- 
ceeded to do his duty; and my lord, not over desirous of 
proving at that moment that he actually kept the King's 
conscience, retired to his inn. The popular candidate 
was elected. In the evening Jeffreys begged the favour 
of the mayor's company at his lodging; but the inde- 
pendent magistrate declined this suspicious honour ; upon 
which, nothing daunted, the chancellor proceeded to the 
house of his antagonist, and introduced himself with this 
winning speech: "Sir, notwithstanding we are in diffe- 
rent interests, I cannot help revering one who so well 
knows, and dares so nobly execute the law; and though 
I myself was somewhat degraded thereby, you did but 
your duty. You, as I have learned, are independent, 
but you may have some relation who is not so well pro- 
vided for ; if you have, let me have the pleasure of pre- 
senting him with a considerable place in my gift, just 
now vacant." The mayor could not resist this nattering 
bait; and having a nephew to whom such a place would 
be very acceptable, he named his relative, and the ap- 
pointment was immediately signed by Jeffreys. 

It must not be supposed that the universities would 
easily forget the carriage of the high ecclesiastical com- 
mission judge towards their great men : the indignation 
against him was like that which the Roman senators ma- 
nifested -when the Gauls plucked their beards; and occa- 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 241 



sion was not wanting to gratify the resentment which had 
been aroused. On the 21st of July, 1688, the Duke of 
Ormond, chancellor of Oxford, died, and it was the royal 
intention that the chancellor of England should succeed 
to that rank, in the room of the deceased duke. But the 
college had shrewdly suspected an interference in this 
matter; and, accordingly, on the 23d of that month, 
James, the late duke's grandson, was elected in convoca- 
tion without a dissentient voice. On the next day came 
a mandate from court to choose George, Lord Jeffreys; 
but letters being sent for the purpose of satisfying His 
Majesty that the election could not be revoked, the fa- 
vourite was obliged to rest contented; 1 and, moreover, 
the King, though displeased at first, delivered to the new 



' Jeffreys was outwitted more than once, as every man necessarily 
must be who is striving for all things. In 1684, Dr. Grenvill was made 
dean of Durham, and proposed to resign his prebendal stall. Jeffreys 
got a promise of this preferment ; hut the affair got to the Earl of Bath's 
ears, and he contrived to make Crew, bishop of the see, acquainted with 
it. So it was agreed, that while the instrument of the dean's elevation 
was passing the broad seal, the dean himself should give up his prebend : 
■upon which Sir George Wheeler, who had married his niece, was forth- 
with installed; and the chief justice was balked by speed, in the same 
way as he lost the university honours. 

He was rebuffed on the northern circuit by a coroner about the same 
time. Mr. Baddiley was the person, and he had been fined by my lord 
for a misdemeanor of some kind. After dinner he got admittance to 
the judge. — "How now," said Jeffreys, who expected to pocket what 
he could get, "I suppose you are come to beg off your fine!" — "'No, my 
Lord, have a care of that," was the reply: "for as you have laid it on, 
it belongs to me to take it off." Fines and amerciaments were excepted 
out of the King's commission as belonging to the see : and Jeffreys per- 
ceiving the drift, was plaguily disconcerted at it. These two anecdotes 
are from Crew's Memoirs, in Nichols's Leicestershire. 

21 



242 LIFE OF JEFFKEYS. 



Duke of Ormond the George and Garter which had been 
■worn by his late grandfather. 

We must now go back to the year 1686, for the pur- 
pose of recounting a defeat which the chancellor sus- 
tained at the Charter-house, where he acted occasionally 
as a governor. It seems that the King's first experiment 
in favour of the dispensing power was tried at this insti- 
tution, although it was not concluded till after the quar- 
rel with the universities. Andrew Pophara, a papist, was 
recommended for an out-pensioner's situation. The mas- 
ter x desired the applicant to wait till the governors had 
met to consider his case. At this meeting Jeffreys at- 
tended ; and the business being propounded, he proposed 
a ballot for the man's admission without discussion. But 
it was ordered otherwise, and the master was heard upon 
the impropriety of receiving any person into the hospital, 
who would not take the oaths of allegiance and supre- 
macy. He cited the clause in the act of parliament ex- 
pressly relating to the Charter-house. "What's that to 
the purpose ?" said a governor. " I think it is very much 
to the purpose," answered the Duke of Ormond; "for 
an act of parliament is not so slight a thing, but that it 
deserves to be considered." So the question was put, 
and Popham was refused. However, several governors 
were anxious to have a letter written in answer to the 
King's message; but, as Oldmixon says, Jeffrey's "flung 
away ;" and he carried so many with him, that the rest 
were not sufficient to constitute an assembly. The letter 
was eventually sent, notwithstanding, on which the King 
gave it to his chancellor, saying, "Find out a way that 

1 Dr. Burnet, author of the " Theory of the Earth." 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 243 



I may have right done me at that hospital." This pro- 
duced the grand threats of the quo warranto, and the ec- 
clesiastical commissioners ; but whether it was that the 
governors 1 had too much influence, and too good a cause, 
(which they had spirit enough to defend,) or that the 
court discovered their weakness in attacking Oxford and 
Cambridge, it is clear that the Charter-house was left in 
peace, as it had been once before in the time of James 
the First, when the great chief justice Coke stood for- 
ward as its champion, and pronounced a decisive judgment 
against the party who had ventured to claim it. 

But it is time to look homewards for awhile, and to 
see whether any thing more than ordinary was passing 
at this time in the chancellor's family. Nevertheless, it 
is rarely, indeed, that we can approach a man's domestic 
circle ; and proud is that national feeling which tells us 
we are so safely sheltered from the crowd; yet, how 
gratifying is the little whispered story of private life, got 
even at the twentieth hand with all its discrepancies and 
ambiguities ! What a treasure for a newspaper's proprie- 
tary is the early offspring of some well-turned scandal ! 
Our principle is in brilliant proof at the present moment, 
when all the fond records of antiquated memories are 
brushed up for the general pleasure of a peep behind the 
curtain. And shall we be silent, if we can by any means 



The signatures of the governors were these : — 

W. Cant.* Danby. 

Ormond. Nottingham. 

Hallifax. H. London. f 

Craven. T. Burnet.} 



William Sancrofi. f Henry Compton. % The master. 



244 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



gain access to the family of that remarkable chancellor, 
■whose private bearing has already been described as so 
frolicsome and licentious, and whose behaviour m the 
marriage state (but that we know how contrary the course 
of human nature will run on occasion,) might be supposed 
as full of command as his judgment-seat? To be short, 
such domestic tales as can be gathered shall be given at 
once, according to Dr. Johnson's liberal recommendation, 
" tell all;" and considering that the parties have been in 
their graves for a century and a half, the value of the 
history will suffer no depreciation from its scantiness. 

The second Lady Jeffreys was a dame of most slippery 
courses, if we are to credit rumour : indeed, the words, 
" I dare be sworn she's honest," could never have been 
predicted of her without a fearfully reminiscent blush. 
To say truth, the common notion at the time of Jeffreys's 
marriage was, that Sir John Trevor, of whom more ac- 
count shall be presently given, was the favoured gallant 
of the lady's widowhood, and that he left, — who knows 
what? as the satirist speaks. However, there happened 
to be a great quarrel between Scroggs, the chief justice, 
and Sir George, the then newly married recorder, while 
they were at dinner. Scroggs found out that his friend's 
wife had got into the straw only thirty weeks after mar- 
riage, which, considering that there was already an odd 
story afloat about a Hansen-kelder, and that Trevor's at- 
tentions were no secret, afforded a high treat to the judge. 
So, while Scroggs, who had got out his almanac, was pro- 
claiming this, Jeffreys was raging and denying, which, 
as the story goes, "set him hard as Wakeman's trial." At 
last, like rival counsellors who have been all day clamour- 
ing at each other, they went off very quietly together to pass 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 245 



sentence upon poor Harris, the bookseller. And really, 
these pleasantries were not confined to Sir John Trevor ; 
for, soon afterwards, a man named Montfort, a licensed 
parasite of the chancellor, (who dearly loved flattery,) 
appeal's upon the stage. He seems to have been a suc- 
cessful candidate for the lady's future favours ; so that 
when the bruit of the young Prince's birth went abroad, 
and created so great a sensation, — the Peter Pindar of 
that day, singing of the great achievement, and of the 
chancellor's belief in it, exclaims, — 

And he believes the prince is real too, 

But not so certain, nor, 'tis feared, so true, 

As he wears horns, that were by M — fort made. 

Peter is not content till he has entirely ruined the fair 
one's good name: — 

For he of Heav'n is sure whene'r he dyes : 
Thanks to the care of fond, indulgent wife, 
To make atonement for his wicked life ; 
D s her own soul, * 

Sir John Reesby affects to have been quite surprised 
at the freedoms which the chancellor indulged in before 
this Mr. Montfort, who had been a comedian. " I dined 
with the lord chancellor," says he, "where the lord mayor 
of London was a guest, and some other gentlemen. His 
lordship having, according to custom, drank deep at din- 
ner, called for one Mountfort, a gentleman of his, who 
had been a comedian, an excellent mimic ; and to divert 
the company, as he was pleased to term it, he made him 
plead before him in a feigned cause, during which he aped 
all the great lawyers of the age, in their tone of voice, 
and in their action and gesture of body, to the very great 
21* 



246 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



ridicule, not only of the lawyers, but of the law itself, 
which to me did not seem altogether so prudent in a 
man of his lofty station in the law; diverting it certainly 
was, but prudent in the lord high chancellor, I shall never 
think it." 

To resume for a moment my Lady Jeffreys, whose hus- 
band may truly be said to have 

Mist of the maid and caught the dragon, — 

she seems to have kept quiet possession of her home, 
though not much encouraged at court. She was not pre- 
sent at the birth of the young chevalier; but she had the 
curiosity to ask Dr. Hugh Chamberlayne whether he had 
any commands to attend Her Majesty ; to which he briskly 
answered, he thought he should, unless their brains were 
in disorder. 

The chancellor never abated his vivacious, though in- 
temperate courses. He was always jollity personified. 
One day at Alderman Duncomb's, he, the lord treasurer, 1 
and some others, worked themselves up to so high a pitch 
of loyalty, that it was whispered they had stripped to 
their shirts, and, but for an accident, would have got 
upon a sign-post to drink the King's health. Neverthe- 
less, this furious debauch cost Jeffreys a fit of the stone, 
which had nearly ended all his convivialities for ever. 
He "virtuously" brought it upon himself, says Eeresby. 
Sometimes, however, he kept very good society. Evelyn, 
the author of Silva, notes in his Diary, that Jeffreys had 
always been very civil to him, and that he went to dine 
with the great man on one occasion. On another day 

1 Rochester. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 247 



he writes, "I returned home, when I found my lord 
chief justice [Jeffreys,] the Countess of Clarendon, and 
Lady Catherine Fitzgerald, who dined with me." 

Another of the chancellor's high acquaintance was 
Henry, eai'l of Clarendon ; but that noble lord had a pur- 
pose to serve by ingratiating himself at Bulstrode, having 
some concerns at issue, which needed countenance from 
the King. He was treated with great civility ; and invited 
to dinner, a gentleman, named Graham, having "prepared 
my lord chancellor." After a disappointment, occasioned 
by Lord Clarendon's illness, the parties met accordingly; 
and Jeffreys promised to take all opportunities of serving 
his guest, begging that he might sometimes see him. — 
And he showed a similar partiality on many subsequent 
occasions. In fact, the noble earl had done well to ac- 
quire a judicial friend ; for he was at one time involved 
in litigation. He had embroiled himself with the queen 
dowager in the court of Exchequer, and with a Mr. Dock- 
manique, about a New River affair ; in which latter case 
Jeffreys interested himself highly to effect a satisfactory 
settlement. One day they came to Bulstrode for this 
purpose ; but all business being delayed by the default of 
some absentees, the chancellor was determined to amuse 
his friend. This is the note in the Diary: "I went in 
his calash with him. He talked very freely to me of all 
affairs ; called the judges a thousand fools and knaves ; 
that chief justice Wright was a beast: he said, the King 
and Queen were to dine with him on Thursday next ; that 
he had still great hopes the King would be moderate, 
when the parliament met. When we came to Dr. Hick- 
man's, my lord was inclined to be merry ; saying, he had 
papists and spies among his own servants, and therefore 
must be cautious at home." 



248 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



We have a picture of the chancellor's self-love from 
the author of his "Life and Character," which exhibits a 
most inordinate vanity. It would seem that he affected 
this acquaintance with learned men from a pure feeling 
of conceit, which his flatterers had found it their interest 
to foster even in its utmost extravagancies : so that he 
would discourse of religion, philosophy, indeed of any 
subject which he had been complimented on knowing, and 
would even delight in pointing out errors in the principal 
works of art which appeared in his time ; though it often 
turned out that his opinions were not classical, and his 
conclusions inaccurately drawn. It is related, that the 
grossest adulation, such as would disgust and affront 
another man, was the sweetest homage which could be 
paid him; whether it came from the press in "fustian" 
dedications, or from the lips of those who would "fool 
him to the top of the bent" for their dinner and wine. — 
These worthies, like all base-born parasites, repaid him 
with a silent laugh at his vanity ; whilst men of taste and 
learning, who heard his solutions of philosophical and 
mathematical problems at second-hand (for he dared not 
adventure them in the face of science,) were amazed, 
when they discovered his want of skill. One would have 
thought that the following specimen of dedication had 
been a mere mockery and sarcasm, but for his reported 
love of the most fulsome harangues. It is prefixed to the 
"History of Oracles, and the Cheats of the Pagan Priests," 
published in 1G88. 

" Nor can the unthinking and most malicious of your 
enemies reproach your lordship with self-interest in any 
of your services, since all the world knows, when they 
were thought criminal, nay even punishable, (for such 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 249 



miserable times we have seen) when it was enough to have 
forfeited your fortune, and almost your life ; then, I say, 
there was found in your lordship that undaunted bravery, 
that spirit and fire of loyalty, that true concern for the 
royal cause, that you were the first destin'd victim for 
the slaughter, the first to be sacrificed to the associatio?i 
rage, even when you had nothing left you but honour, 
justice, and innocence, for your guard." 

This character for bravery was sadly at variance with 
the spectacle of Mr. Kecorder on his knees before the 
parliament; and his justice or innocence might have been 
bitterly contrasted with the western horrors. 

Jeffreys was considered a good judge of music; and 
during the rivalship of those two famous organ-builders, 
Father Smith and Harris, he was one of the umpires 
chosen to decide on their respective merits. An organ 
was placed by each artist in the Temple church ; one at the 
east, the other at the west end : Blow and Purcell played 
for Smith, and Lully, Queen Catherine's organist, for 
Harris. Then Harris challenged Smith to make within 
a given time the additional stop of the vox humana ; the 
cremona, or viol stop ; the double courtel, or bass flute, 
&c. The challenge was accepted, and each party laboured 
to the utmost. Jeffreys decided for Smith, and Harris's 
organ was withdrawn. Smith, or Schmidt, was a native 
of Germany ; Harris came from France. 1 

Some time after his elevation to the chancellorship, 
Jeffreys bethought himself to visit his father; it is to be 
hoped through a desire of seeing his parent once more, 

1 See Granger's Biographical History of England, by Noble, Vol. ii. 
p. 363. 



250 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



and not for the purpose of displaying his new glories in 
the neighbourhood of his birth, whence he had been so 
cavalierly dismissed before by the old gentleman. How- 
ever this may be, Mr. Jeifreys of Acton, conscious how 
odious his son's character had become in the nation, was 
so much ashamed, that he refused to see him. This re- 
spectable man survived all his sons; and Mr. Yorke speaks 
of a picture at Acton which represents the father in 
mourning for his seventh and youngest, the canon of Can- 
terbury. 

But it is time that we should turn for a while to the 
fortunes of Sir John Trevor, who was so long intimately 
connected with Jeffreys. He was also allied by blood to 
his patron, being a cousin, 1 and like him arose from the 
smallest beginnings. A clerk to Arthur Trevor, another 
kinsman, and a lawyer in the Temple, — he was allowed 
to learn, as his relation said, "the knavish part of the 
law," in chambers. After this he courted the society of 
gamesters; and brought his knowledge of law to bear well 
with them, so that he was their point oVappui, when they 
had involved themselves in any gambling difficulties, 
solving their doubts, and playing the judge much to their 
satisfaction. Whether Jeffreys interested himself for 
this lawyer by reason of his relationship, or because he 
was resolved that the acquaintance between his wife and 
Trevor should appear reasonable, by introducing him as 
his own personal friend, we need not inquire (both grounds 
would entitle the young man to a favourable considera- 
tion:) it is certain, that a silk gown, and the mastership, 
of the Rolls, on the decease of Sir John Churchill, were 

1 Descended from Tudor Trevor, earl of Hereford. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 251 



the rewards or the advantages of this friendship : and in 
July, 1688, he was sworn of the privy-council. Henry, 
earl of Clarendon, remarks upon it thus : — "July 6, 1688. 
Sir John Trevor, master of the Rolls, Colonel Tytus, and 
Mr. Vane, Sir Henry Vane's son, were sworn of the 
privy-council. Good God bless us ! What will the world 
come to?" 

He had certainly supplanted the chancellor, according 
to Roger North, if King James's dominion had lived 
longer, for he never held his superior in much awe; and 
in Cornish's case, he had the fearlessness to say, "That 
if he [Jeffreys] pursued that unfortunate man to execu- 
tion, it would be no better than murder." Matters, truly, 
had gone so far in dispute between them, as to produce 
mutual scoldings and upbraidings at Whitehall. The ef- 
fort to unseat his master, if true, appears to be ingrati- 
tude of a sufficiently black description on the part of 
Trevor ; but a writer informs us, that Jeffreys, most pro- 
bably through jealousy of his newly-raised favourite, per- 
petually reversed his decrees, and discharged his most 
common orders. Nay more, he set up officers of his 
own appointment to affront the master by questioning 
his authority, and insulting him publicly on his seat, 
without learning or credit to sustain their objections. 1 
Sir John boldly maintained his ground, and baffled the 
attempts which were made to humble him ; but it is by 
no means so clear that he would have succeeded to the 
seals. There was more than one anxious aspirant to this 
dignity so soon as it was known that Jeffreys' attachment 



' Yet on consulting Vernon's Reports, many of Sir John Trevor's de- 
:rees will be found to have been confirmed by the lord chancellor. 



252 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



to the Protestant religion had diminished his influence at 
court; and but for the firmness of a British jury, it is 
probable that Mr. Solicitor-general Williams would have 
had them for his zealous service against the seven bishops. 1 

However, the good planet of Sir John Trevor did not 
set at the Revolution ; for he was chosen speaker of the 
House of Commons in 1690, having filled that high situa- 
tion before in King James's parliament. He was consti- 
tuted first commissioner of the great seal in the same 
year, and presided in Chancery till the elevation of Lord 
Somers. He met, indeed, with some reverses; which 
must occasionally happen to every "bold and dexterous 
man," as Burnet calls him. 

The mastership of the Rolls, for example, was given 
to Henry Powle on the accession of William ; but Trevor 
recovered that place in a few years on the demise of the 
master, and continued to dispense equity to the day of 
his death. This dignity was restored to him while 
speaker, and first commissioner in Chancery. But the 
worst difficulty he ever fell into was the discovery of a 
bribe which he took from the city of London, for patro- 
nizing a bill to satisfy the orphanage debts : no master 
of the Rolls ever ran nearer a lee-shore for 1000Z. After 
hearing a variety of personal reproaches for six hours, 
he was actually necessitated to put the question against 



1 Philip Yorke, in his " Royal Tribes of Wales," tells this story, which 
he heard from Lord Hardwicke : — " When Jeffreys, who was sitting in 
the court of Chancery, heard the immense shouting for the bishops' ac- 
quittal, he was seen to smile, and hide his face in his nosegay. This 
was as good as — 'Mr. Solicitor, I keep my seal;' for he knew that Wil- 
liams had been promised it, if he could get a verdict against the hie- 
rarchy." 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 253 



himself; and, conformably with the sense of the House, 
having made the comfortable declaration, that " Sir John 
Trevor was guilty of corrupt bribery, by receiving," &c. 
he departed ; and, sending the mace, did not care to ob- 
trude himself again as speaker. In a few days he was 
expelled, but no impeachment followed to deprive him of 
his legal rank, so that the wags cried out; "Justice is 
blind, but Bribery only squints." He squinted abomi- 
nably. And he was not troubled with any qualms of po- 
litical integrity; but the absence of these, indeed, has 
shown a strong digestion in very many of his fraternity 
since, and in others, too, as well. Burnet says, that he 
began the practice of buying off men ; a circumstance which 
would alone demonstrate the virtue of a national debt, 
and the righteous appropriation of loans; and, being a 
tory himself, he was of course deemed the fittest to manage 
that party in parliament. 

Not to be too hard upon him, he certainly was a man 
of great acuteness who could so well recommend himself 
to every government, and enjoy an office which requires 
a singular purity in its administration, himself under the 
galling imputation of bribery, and the sad punishment of 
being turned out from a post of the highest worth. — "He 
died at his house in Clement's-lane, May 20, 1717; and 
was buried in the Rolls' chapel." 1 



1 Collins' Peerage. Trevor was once the victim of a repartee from 
Tillotson, who was in general sparing of his wit. Soon after the arch- 
bishop's great promotion, and Sir John's unlucky adventure of the 1000/., 
the latter meeting the churchman near the House of Lords, muttered 
loud enough to be overheard, " I hate a fanatic in lawn-sleeves." — "And 
I hate a knave in any sleeves," returned the doctor. 

The bribery spoken of was quite in keeping with his character. He 
99 



254 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



Except in Granger, it is difficult to say, where George, 
(Jeffreys) Earl of Flint, Viscount Weikham, is mentioned. 
The reverend biographer once thought that this title was a 

was a decided economist. One day he dined alone at the Rolls, and was 
taking his wine, when his cousin, Roderic Lloyd, was ushered in from 
a side-door.— "You rascal," said Trevor to his servant, "and you have 
brought my cousin, Roderic Lloyd, Esq., prothonotary of North Wales, 
marshal to Baron Price, and so forth, and so forth, up my back stairs. 
Take my cousin, Roderic Lloyd, Esq., prothonotary of North Wales, 
marshal to Baron Price, and so forth, and so forth; take him instantly 
back, down my back stairs, and bring him up my front stairs." Roderic 
kicked against this excessive exhibition of respect, probably anticipating 
the plot; for while he was being conveyed away down one, and up ano- 
ther flight of stairs, his Honour removed the bottle and glass. This 
same Roderic was once dreadfully frightened in Chancery-lane. Coming 
home rather fresh from his club one night, he ran against the pump th'ere. 
Thinking he had received a blow, he whipped out his sword, made a 
lunge, and passed it into the spout. The pump being somewhat crazy, 
fell down. Roderic concluded the worst, left his weapon sticking, and 
made off to Sir John's house in the Rolls under the dreadful apprehension 
of having killed a man. There he was kept close by the servants for 
the remainder of the night. In the morning, a faithful valet, who had 
been sent to learn the condition of the fallen, made his report; and forth 
came the judge to deliver his kinsman from his horrors and confinement 
in the coal-hole. The above anecdotes are from " Yorke's Royal Tribes 
of Wales." 

There were two other judges of the same family. All three owed 
their immediate descent to Edward ap David, who died in 1448. John, 
of whom we have been speaking, had the eldest son of this Edward for 
his ancestor ; while Thomas, whom we shall now introduce, was derived 
from the third, (Richard,) whose fifth son he was. Thomas was born 
July 6, 1586: he was observed to smile as soon as he was born, (an 
augury as well applicable to a tailor as a judge;) went to the Inner 
Temple, and became serjeant-at-law. Collins informs us, that he was 
successively judge of the Common Pleas and lord chief baron ; but from 
the authorized law reports of the period in which he lived, it appears 
that he was made a baron of the Exchequer in the early part of King 
Charles' reign j and we find from history, that he continued in that sta- 



LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 255 



"ridiculous sarcasm," till he was shown a book entitled, 
" Dissertatio Lithologica, auctore Joanne Groenevelt, 
Transisalano, Daventriensi, M. D. E Col. Med. Lond. 



tion till the death of his master, when, in common with five others, he 
refused to act under the new commission. He was impeached during 
the troubles of 1641 ; and though he escaped the vengeance which fell 
upon his contemporary Berkley, who was fairly taken off the bench, he 
was obliged to pay 10,000/. After this, he was, at one time, the only 
judge who sat upon the Exchequer bench, when certain messengers de- 
livered the King's writ to him and Judge Reve, for an adjournment of 
the term from London to Oxford : he caused the person who served him 
to be apprehended, and so did his fellow judge. One of these men was 
hanged as a spy. He married, first, Prudence, daughter of Henry Bo- 
teler, Esq.; and secondly, Frances, daughter and heir of Daniel Blenner- 
hasset, of Norfolk. By his first wife he had Thomas, who was made a 
baronet, but died without issue male, in Charles II. 's reign. The judge 
himself died December 21, 1656, aged S3; and was buried in Leaming- 
ton Hastang, in Warwickshire. 

Thomas Trevor, the first Lord Trevor, and ancestor of the Viscounts 
Hampden, was nephew of Baron Trevor. His father was Sir John, of 
Trevallin, Flintshire; and his eldest brother was Sir John, principal se- 
cretary of state to King Charles II. This gpntleman studied the law 
with such effect, that he became solicitor-general in 1692, and attorney 
soon afterwards. When Treby died, he was advanced to be chief jus- 
tice of the Common Pleas, and in 1711 was made a peer. He was a 
tory at this time, and so met with little mercy at the Hanover succes- 
sion ; for he was compelled to quit his place in favour of Sir Peter King. 

Had the question, whether the judges were removable on the demise 
of the Crown been new, Trevor would have tried it, on the principle of 
his being appointed during good behaviour; but Holt had been alarmed 
on the accession of Queen Anne, and had procured a new commission; 
and Sir John Trevor, the master of the Rolls, had followed his example. 
Archer had attempted the same thing, in the reign of Charles II. ; and 
so had the Chief Baron Walter, in the preceding reign. Yet Sir Joseph 
Jekyll, chief justice of Chester at the death of King William, boldly set 
the court at defiance; and though he was threatened with a prosecution, 
and great interest made for the place by Mr. Conyers, lie prevailed. 
Lord Trevor had started a whig, and had been attorney some years be- 



2o(J LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 

Eclitio secunda. Londini, 1687, 8vo." It had this de- 
dication; — " Honoratissimo domino, D. Georgio, Comiti 
Flintensi, Vicecomiti de Weikham, baroni de Weira, su- 
premo Angliae cancellario, et serenissimo Jacobo Secundo, 
Regi Anglise, a secretioribus consiliis." 1 



fore he deserted his party; he then gradually withdrew himself, and sig- 
nally dissented from them, by voting against Sir John Fenwick's at- 
tainder. However, he came back to them, and in 1726 was made lord 
privy seal, one of the lords justices in 1727, and president of the council 
in 1730. " He was," says Onslow, " the only man almost that I ever 
knew, who changed his party as he had done, that preserved so general 
an esteem with all parties as he did." We learn from the same autho- 
rity, that he loved being at court, but was very awkward there, having 
been a most "reserved, grave, and austere judge." Yet the speaker 
gives him a character for ability and uprightness as chief justice; and 
adds, that he had found him sufficiently communicative in conversation. 
Holt was accustomed to "disparage his law." He died, aged 71, June 
19, 1730. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, and a governor of the 
Charter-house. He was twice married. Three of his sons became suc- 
cessively Lords Trevor : and another was made Bishop of St. David's 
and translated to Durham. The eldest son by the second wife, who also 
inherited the barony of Trevor, was the first Viscount Hampden. 

1 There would be no room for astonishment on finding that King James 
had gratified his minister with an earldom; but why was the advanced 
rank abandoned by his son ? The creation could hardly have been made 
for life only: possibly it might have been fully intended, but never exe- 
cuted ; or, which is most probable, the patent might never have been 
sued out (Nichols says it never was,) and the young lord was clearly in 
a bad condition to ask for aggrandizement. A correspondent in the Gen- 
tleman's Magazine seems to treat the promotion altogether as a fiction; 
and, referring to the picture by Sir Godfrey Kneller, which represents 
the judge in his baron's robes, asks, if the painter would have drawn him 
twice? But though the portrait by Sir Godfrey was executed in 1687, 
why should not the title have been granted later in that year, and the 
dedication by Groenevelt made in anticipation of it? Here is- a book 
which bears the intended honour upon the face of it, and a print to con- 
firm its authority. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 25 



" But let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest 
he fall." Just at the moment when our chancellor's 
prosperity seemed to have attained an eminence which 
men might look up to with wonder, there was a danger at 
hand, of that fatal description which ever awaits such as 
stand too confidently upon their imagined influence. We 
have come to the month of December, 1687; and although 
it was not mentioned in due course, it is sufficient for us 
to allude to the well-known historical fact of Lord Castle- 
maine going ambassador to Pope Innocent, some two or 
three years before. With the opportune fits of cough- 
ing which afflicted his Holiness as soon as business was 
mentioned, with the strict requisitions of ceremonials 
which troubled the diplomatist, his failure in the main ob- 
ject of his mission, and the doubts thrown upon Wel- 
wood's narrative, by such as have said that the pope 
never coughed at all, we have no concern; our object 
being to reveal the combustibles in this mine which was 
to be sprung. In the midst of this it is to be observed, 
that Castlemaine's journey to Rome was high-treason; 
and that Jeffreys was alarmed at it beyond measure, it 
being his duty, as a cabinet minister, to entertain an 
opinion upon the subject, to advise the King, and be 
ready to answer for the consequences. His lukewarm- 
ness was detected by the sharp-sighted priests with a fa- 
cility very natural to them ; and they followed up this 
imputation against him throughout the reign. Father 
Petre, Sunderland's tool and vehicle, had moreover 
discovered, that in the proceedings against Magdalen 
College, a moderation, quite obnoxious to the papists, had 
been recommended by the chancellor to his sovereign. 
Now the received maxim was, that "all court merit con- 
22* 



258 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



sisted in promoting the Catholic cause," and the King 
was well-pleased with the application of it. Jeffreys 
would not promote the cause, therefore Jeffreys must be 
sacrificed. The matter stood thus: Tyrconnel, deputy 
of Ireland, was fearful he should be obliged to yield his 
place to my Lord Castlemaine; Petre was his friend, and 
at this father's hands he asked for assistance and con- 
tinuance in his office. Castlemaine was attached to the 
pope, and had a promise of great interference from him, 
which went so far, through the nuncio, as to gain over 
the monarch in his favour. If the Lords Powis, Bellasis, 
and Dover, then lords of the Treasury, could be made 
lords commissioners of the great seal, 1 Castlemaine might 
be lord treasurer, and so Tyrconnel remain in Ireland, 
both lording it over the "dirty roads of power." The 
Protestant keeper of the seals was thus in a fair way of 
returning the purse and mace; for, on the 17th of De- 
cember, it was resolved in the cabinet, that this altera- 
tion was feasible, and should be made. However, just at 
the time there broke out a quarrel between the French 
King and the Pope : Tyrconnel, Petre, and Jeffreys, were 
of the French faction; and Castlemaine followed his 
Holiness. Father Petre, now able to save Tyrconnel, 
dared not alter the balance of the court by introducing 
Lord Castlemaine; and so Jeffreys profited by the turn 
of luck, and was thoroughly re-established. 2 



' Horace Walpole tells us, in his Catalogue of Royal and Noble Au- 
thors, of a report, that Jeffreys was nearly superseded by the Earl of 
Anglesey, in 1686 ; but adds, he could hardly suppose that the minister 
would be so easily unseated. The event was nearer at hand in 1687. 

Oldmixon says, that his restoration was effected by Sunderland and 
the Queen. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 259 



As far as appearances went, the chancellor showed the 
most manifest eagerness to deserve his continued favour, 
though it may be shrewdly suspected (and the momen- 
tous case of the seven bishops 1 affords a remarkable ex- 
ample of this,) that he never persecuted the establish- 
ment but with an aching and disapproving heart. In- 
deed, at that trying crisis, he was actually in great trou- 
ble, and spoke freely of the apprehensions he entertained 
that their public trial would be of ill consequence to the 
King. "It will be found," said he, "that I have done 
the part of an honest man ; as for the judges, they are 
most of them rogues." And at another time he said, 
that the King had once resolved to let the business fall, 
but that some people would hurry him to his destruction. 
And after the trial he declared, that the King himself 
was vexed at it; that he was in a milder temper; and, 
"now," said he, "honest men, both lords and others, 
(though the King have used them hardly,) should appear 
often at court: I am sure it would do good." All this 
smoothness, however, was behind the curtain: we give 
his public conduct beneath. 

The bishops, after having incensed the monarch by their 
famous petition, (when he declared, as he did oftentimes 
afterwards, that he would be obeyed,) were summoned 
before the privy council, where the great examinant and 
interrogator was present. The point was soon arrived 
at. "Do you own the petition?" said Jeffreys. It is to 
be noticed that hitherto no evidence of libel had been ac- 
quired on the part of the crown ; these dignified persons 

' William Sancroft, archbishop of Canterbury ; William Lloyd, bishop 
of St. Asaph; Francis Turner, bishop of Ely; Thomas Kenn, bishop of 
Bath and Wells; John Lake, bishop of Chichester; Thomas White, 
bishop of Peterborough; Sir Jonathan Trelawney, bishop of Bristol. 



200 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



must, therefore, be condemned by their own admissions, 
drawn warily forth by the wily judge. But not so easily: 
they evaded at first ; and at length, out of mere shame 
at the fear of acknowledging their own, the archbishop 
said that he wrote it, the bishops that they had signed 
and delivered it. But this was only half the campaign. 
"Did you publish it?" continued the chancellor. This 
they flatly denied ; they had no knowledge of the publi- 
cation. Then a lecture was commenced upon the wicked- 
ness of their disobedience; the disturbance of the gene- 
ral peace ; and many menaces were interspersed to alarm 
the bishops for their safety. Finding that he was wast- 
ing his breath, Jeffreys demanded their recognizance to 
appear before the Court of King's Bench, and answer 
the high misdemeanor. Upon this, they insisted on the 
privilege of their peerage, which rather terrified the coun- 
cil, the rights of nobility being serious stumbling-blocks 
to all innovators; but the lord chancellor soon relieved 
these apprehensions by threatening to commit the defen- 
dants to the Tower, as public delinquents. They were 
ready to go, they answered, whithersoever His Majes- 
ty was pleased to send them. They hoped the King 
of Kings would be their Protector and their Judge. 
They feared nothing from men; and having acted ac- 
cording to law and their consciences, no punishment 
should ever be able to shake their resolutions. This 
being felt as a struggle for victory on the one side or the 
other, a warrant Avas drawn and signed by Jeffreys, and 
handed round to the board, who all subscribed, save Petre, 
and he was exempted by the royal order. 1 The acquittal 



' Kennet and Echard declare that some of the judges declined to sign 
it. The account we have given is according to Burnet and Ralph. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 261 



of these great men is familiar to every school-boy ; but 
the difficulty of proving the publication of the libel is not 
so well known. It is one thing to write a libel ; another 
to make it public : it is again one thing to publish a li- 
bel, another to obtain evidence of that publication ac- 
cording to the forms of justice. 

In the bishops' case it became necessary to show a 
publication in Middlesex. It was proved that they had 
owned the writing of the petition ; but their open tender 
of it was by delivering it into the King's hands. And 
here was the defect. One witness said that he did not 
remember Avhat the bishops owned respecting the de- 
livery; another halted upon his opinion; and a third 
thought that they had confessed the publication to the 
lord chancellor, of which opinions and conjectures not a 
tittle was good testimony, while great shouts were set up in 
the hall. "Here's wonderful rejoicing that truth cannot 
prevail!" cries Mr. Solicitor. At length, after prodi- 
gious pauses, came my lord president of the council, 1 and 
he declared that the bishops had told him on the day in 
question, that they were about to deliver a petition to 
the King, and that they offered him the paper; and he 
added, that they then went into the King's chamber. 
Upon this the court said that after such proof, it lay 
upon the bishops to show that the paper so supposed to 
be delivered was not that charged in the information. 
The whole matter was subsequently left to the considera- 
tion of the jury; who, much to the mortification of Sir 
William Williams, 2 , then hungering for the great seal, 
pronounced the defendants not guilty, having sat up all 
night without fire or candle. 

1 Sunderland. * Solicitor-General. 



2G2 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



And now we come to a very royal scene, at which the 
chancellor was present in his official capacity, and in a 
very advanced post. This was the birth of the Preten- 
der, otherwise called King James III. On the day of 
the bishops' committal, the Queen intimated her inten- 
tion of removing from Whitehall to St. James's, for the 
purpose of lying-in, and the next morning was the first 
of the Chevalier's existence. 

The entree was not quite so indiscriminate as at the 
French ceremonial, 1 but there were men in the room suf- 
ficient to distress a woman in that situation, whether de- 
licate or robust. At eight o'clock His Majesty was sent 
for, and on his arrival, he summoned the Queen dowager 
and all the council. 

The satirist describes the grandees thus : — 

Then comes great George of England, chancellour, 
Who was with expedition call'd to th' labour: 
Lord P dent 2 comes next, that's now cashier'd; 

1 Madame Campan gives a lively description of the motley assembly 
at an accouchement of Marie Antoinette. All the royal family, princes 
of the blood, and great officers of state, passed the night in a neighbour- 
ing chamber; but on the instant of the midwife's exclamation, "La 
Reine va s'accoucher," the etiquette of general admission was so lite- 
rally observed, that had it not been for some tapestry screens, corded, by 
the King's foresight, near Her Majesty's bed, the torrent of persons 
would have fallen upon her. Two Savoyards mounted the furniture 
that they might have a full view of their mistress. In fact, it was like 
a place of public amusement. At length, the Queen fainted from disap- 
pointment, the softer sex of the infant being discovered to her, and the 
accoucheur bawled out for air and warm water, and for the chief surgeon 
to bleed her in the foot. The joy on her revival was so great that the 
utmost confusion followed; and the valets-de-chambre took the opportu- 
nity of removing divers persons from the room by the collar. This was 
the last of the legitimately indiscriminate etiquettes. 

a Sunderland. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 263 



Then A del 1 of W — dour, privy seal; 

Then comes my lord 2 All pride with modesty; 

with a great many more, some of whom were not of the 
council, besides many ladies of quality. 

" The feet curtains of the bed, and the two sides were 
open." The Queen was in great pain, and the King 
called for Jeffreys, who " came up to the bedside to show 
he was there," upon which the rest of the privy counsel- 
lors did the same. 

Her Majesty was exceedingly annoyed at this, for all 
the nobles were close to the bed, and the chancellor 
upon the step. She begged her consort to hide her face 
with his head and periwig, for she declared, "she could 
not be brought to bed and have so many men look on her." 3 
However, the affair then took place, the child was taken 
into an adjoining chamber, followed by the council, who 
having been advised in dumb show by the midwife's sign, 
that it was a son, retreated. 

A writer of the last century, no doubt a violent whig, 
who thought no reproach too bitter, and no imputation 
too severe, declares, that however ill qualified he might 
have been for his high office, Jeffreys well understood 
the value of it. Very anxious to attain riches and an 
estate, he is charged with selling places at a rate the 
most extravagant, so that art and dexterity were called 
very considerably in aid to gain purchasers. To pro- 
mote the traffic, which his demands had rendered diffi- 
cult, he enlarged the perquisites ; and while he was dis- 



1 Lord Arundel of Wardour. 

3 Earl of Mulgrave. State Poems, vol. 3, p. 263. 

* See Appendix to Sir John Dalrymple, part 1, p 308. 



264 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



posing of a situation at five times the usual price, his 
courtesy and kindness were dispensed with unusual libe- 
rality. Although there is such a belabouring in the 
pamphlet, as must inevitably remind us of the ass Avho 
kicked the dead lion, it must be owned, that the acquisi- 
tion of fortune was a very main object with this noble- 
man; though, where the author attributes his exactions 
to avarice, we should lay them to the pressing necessi- 
ties which must have so closely waited on his careless 
habits and lavish expenditure. 

A circumstance occurred while he filled the equity 
bench, which amply proves the calumny of satirists, and 
the prejudices of a multitude. There was a cause before 
him, which involved a large sum of money to be paid, as 
his lordship's judgment might be given, to Lord Pem- 
broke's creditors, or to his heiress. The opinion of the 
court Was against the creditors, and John Jeffreys, the 
chancellor's son, was married to the lady very speedily 
after the decree. " Loud and deep reflections were made 
upon the judge's honesty and honour," says the martyr- 
ologist, and the greedy ear of slander could have been 
scarce ever satiated with such a goodly tale : 

Old Tyburn must groan, 
For Jeffreys is known 
To have perjur'd his conscience to marry his son : 

says the Pindar of the day; but the outcry was quite un- 
fair, the decree being founded on the most equitable and 
approved principles, sanctioned by cases, and by several 
judges in open court. 1 Nay, which is more, an appeal 

1 Lord Pembroke, on his marriage, demised lands to trustees for ninety- 
nine years, who redemised them to him for ninety-eight years and eleven 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 265 



was brought after the Revolution, and heard before the 
lords commissioners; 1 when "every thing," says the author 
of the "Life and Character," "was heard greedily that 
tended to impeach the chancellor's integrity," and all 
the influence of the Pembroke family was used against 
the judgment ; but it stood its ground, being sustained by 
the force of just principle, and the authority of precedents. 
The appeal was carried still farther, even unto the last 
tribunal, the House of Lords, but shared the same fate, 
for that high assembly did not think fit to reverse it. 
Nevertheless, no acuteness was wanting to make the bar- 
gain sure, for the lady being a Roman catholic, the 
marriage was solemnized two ways ; first by a priest, and 
next by a divine of the establishment. 

It may be stated, without fear of contradiction, that 
this was not the only appeal against a judgment of Jef- 
freys, which failed of success upon consideration, nor was 



months, he agreeing that a peppercorn should be paid during his life; 
after his death, a jointure for his wife's life; and at her death, a pepper- 
corn for the rest of the term. This term, being raised for a particular 
purpose, was holden not liable to any debts which would not affect the 
inheritance, as bond debts, &c, and, therefore, not capable of being 
charged with simple contract debts. And this was determined by the 
lord chancellor, Sir John Trevor, M.R., Mr. Justice Luitwich, and Mr. 
Baron Powell, and Mr. Justice Thomas Powel was known to be of the 
same opinion. After the second hearing, the decree was, to pay all the 
bond creditors of Lord Pembroke with the proceeds of the sale of these 
terms, and to apply the goods, &c, to the liquidation of simple contract 
debts, not barred by the statute of limitations. The bond debts were 
9000/., the book debts and debts by simple contract 18,200/. The inde- 
pendent personal estate was 6000/., but the terms in question weregranted, 
to secure 1800/. a year. — See Vernon's Reports, in 8vo., Vol. 2, part 1, 
pp. 52 and 213. 

'Sir John Trevor, Mr. Keck, Serjeant Rawlinson. 

23 



266 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



it a solitary case upon which he might have arrived at a 
just conclusion, through the interest which he possessed 
in its result : for though many of his decisions, after the 
Revolution more particularly, came a second time to be 
canvassed, they had so strongly the virtue of good law 
to uphold them, that few, if any, were overturned ; and 
if we consult the able annotator of Vernon, 1 it seems, that 
most of those determinations would be admitted as autho- 
rities at this day, except the state of equity practice were 
inconsistent with them. 

The perception of the chancellor was especially vivid, 
and his opinion moulded in an instant: if succeeding 
lawyers, then, have acknowledged the ability of his im- 
pressions, and courts of review the righteousness of his 
judgments, we need no more evidence to prove that he 
was an admirable judge of equity. Nor is this commen- 
dation a mere result of our opinion ; for, were it so, it 
would be expressed with much more modesty; it is the 
unanimous testimony of judges and lawyers, at least of 
such as lived sufficiently distant from his day to be free 
from prejudice. 

Burnet declares, that "he was not learned in his pro- 
fession;" but Speaker Onslow says, on the contrary, "I 
have heard Sir Joseph JekylP say otherwise." The 
Speaker goes on: — "He had likewise great parts, and 
made a great chancellor in the business of that court. 
In more private matters he was thought an able and up- 
right judge wherever he sat; but where the crown or his 
party were concerned, he was as he is here represented, 3 

1 The late Mr. Raithby. 

* Master of the Rolls. 

3 That is, by Burnet, as very violent. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 267 



generally at least." 1 "He was a very ill chancellor," 
says an author, who must have had a Chancery-suit de- 
cided against him by the judge; since he commits every 
kind of malediction upon the memory of that considera- 
ble person. It is next to impossible that an unskilful 
jurist should have been able to unite so much accuracy 
with so great a share of quickness. — Semper ad eventum 
festinat, might have been well said of him. There was, 
moreover, a sense of justice in his propositions, so striking, 
as almost to induce a wish that he had lived in these days 
to contribute his share of improvement to that fund of 
alteration which has been so ably collected by the Chan- 
cery commissioners. 2 Almost as soon as he mounted the 
bench, he awarded a defendant such costs as he should 
swear he was out of pocket on the plaintiff dismissing his 
own bill, instead of the customary but inadequate allow- 



1 In the great case of the attorney-general against Vernon, a patent of 
lands granted by the crown was set aside, as obtained for a very inade- 
quate consideration, and under colourable proposals. The lord chief 
justice Jones, and the lord chief baron Montague, men of acknowledged 
integrity, assisted the chancellor in the inquiry, and gave their judg- 
ments in accordance with his. 

'We give an instance of his zeal for just improvement. People ac- 
quainted with the affairs of Chancery are aware that there is some con- 
siderable difficulty in drawing up the minutes of the judge's decree; that 
such minutes are liable to be varied ; and that no settled time is fixed for 
applications for that purpose, whereby delay and vexation are created. 
Jeffreys, in 16&7, observing the evil which was prevalent then also, 
promulged an order, by which the suitors were bidden to pay strict at- 
tention to the reading of his judgments, in order that the officers of the 
court might not be complained of in future for mistakes ; and he ordained, 
that no petition or motion should be entertained on the subject, unless it 
were thought right to alter the decree. And not many years afterwards, 
the time for objecting to the decree was fixed; but this good economy of 
business hours seems of late to have been much neglected. 



268 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



ance of twenty shillings. — "I will do all I can," said he, 
on another occasion, " to help an heir that is disinherited." 
And he sternly resisted the vice of gambling. Sir Basil 
Firebrass, a citizen, had lost three thousand four hundred 
and fifty guineas at play with one Brett, at the same sit- 
ting; but being satisfied that he had been cheated, he 
and his servant retook two thousand guineas from the 
winner by force. The successful gamester brought an 
action of trespass, and Sir Basil went into Chancery to 
stop him, and to have the residue of the losings, being 
one thousand four hundred and fifty guineas more. He 
declared in his -bill, that a chain of fraud had been used 
to inveigle him ; that the defendant Brett had mixed his 
own wine with water, while he plied his antagonist, the 
unlucky plaintiff in Chancery, most abundantly ; that Mr. 
Brett had not above ten guineas in his pocket to begin 
the contest; and, in fact, that he, the plaintiff, was quite 
unconscious of his own actions. Jeffreys said, that, as 
far as he was able, he would discourage such extravagant 
gaming ; that the sum of money lost was enormous for 
persons of their rank; and that the lord chief justice Hale 
had checked a horse-race wager, by threatening to allow 
the defendant, the loser, to put off the cause from time 
to time. 1 This alarmed Brett; and he agreed to a com- 
promise, swearing that he took but eight hundred and 
sixteen guineas away with him. So it was ai-ranged, that 
each party should keep the money he had got, and give 
general releases of all actions, suits, and demands. 

It is no small testimony to the legal acumen of this 
judge, that he was considered to be the writer of Ver- 



' By perpetual imparlances. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 269 



non's Reports, authorities which have ever borne a very 
high estimation; but it is said, that his unpopularity was 
so overwhelming, as to exclude all hopes of their being 
justly appreciated, if his then obnoxious name had ap- 
peared as the author. So sadly true is it, that a man's 
slippery character or uncourteous demeanour will mar the 
deepest knowledge and the finest talents. 

The year 1688 was now passing away, but great events 
were in store for the people of England before its close. 
The acquittal of the bishops had served to show the inde- 
pendence of the country, and their prosecution the ob- 
stinacy of James. Finding that his obdurate resolution 
of forcing a religion upon his subjects was not to be 
shaken, the public looked earnestly for a deliverer, and 
the Prince of Orange soon planned his wonderfully suc- 
cessful expedition to ensure their wishes. But the Sove- 
reign was not without a counsellor of ability : Jeffreys, 
who had secretly striven most anxiously to moderate the 
royal temper, now urged the calling of a parliament, and 
penned a declaration to allay all jealousies before the 
meeting. The King was really struck, but his good 
feeling did not last. 

On the 22d of September, Lord Clarendon met the 
chancellor at the levee, and heard that the declaration had 
been altered at the privy-council board; that the Lord 
Godolphin had "broke loose from him, and endeavoured 
to trim in the new wording some clauses ;" but that King 
James had sent for the archbishop of Canterbury, and 
some of his old friends, to confer upon the posture of 
affairs. In less than a week the chancellor was in de- 
spair ; some rogues, as he expressed himself, had changed 
the King's mind, who would not yield a point to the bi- 
23* 



270 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



shops : the Virgin Mary was to do all : so that the day- 
was lost. 

There was a great fluctuation, notwithstanding, in the 
royal chambers, as two parties were very earnestly con- 
tending for the balance ; the priests on the one side, the 
bishops on the other. The monarch would not act deci- 
sively : he issued a general pardon, but he put off the 
parliament. And now it fell to the lot of the poor crest- 
fallen chancellor to go within the city gates again, and in 
most humble mood to yield up the spoils of his triumph. 
It was resolved at court, that the charter should be re- 
stored : yet it is fair to assert, that he was the adviser of 
that honest proceeding; and why may we not conclude, 
that, for the evil he had, done, he was now seeking the 
most effectual atonement, though he might value himself 
upon his influence over the royal mind? It was with 
great satisfaction that he told the Earl of Clarendon on 
the 2d of October, how several of the old aldermen were 
to be carried to court on that evening, and to be present- 
ed by their old recorder ; indeed, he did not doubt but 
that he should bring more good things to pass. 

The magistrates came ; they received a promise that 
their charter should be returned, and the corporation 
placed in the same situation as when the depriving judg- 
ment was given. When we hear, then, that the King 
commanded his chancellor to yield up the city writings 
in his own person, we must give the penitent minister 
credit for his good counsel, while we attribute the hu- 
mility which accompanied the restoration to his just ap- 
prehensions. 

James, indeed, who knew that the bishops were on the 
point of importuning him for this act of justice, professed 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 271 



to make a great merit of his concession. He told the 
mayor and aldermen that he was mightily concerned for 
the welfare of their body ; and that at a time when inva- 
sion menaced the kingdom, his gracious boon was a mark 
of the confidence he entertained of their loyalty. Ac- 
cordingly, on the day following this courtly reception, 
Jeffreys proceeded to the Guildhall, in great pomp, and 
delivered the instrument which put the corporation in 
possession of their privileges ; long and loud were the 
acclamations which welcomed the deed ; though the author 
was saluted with a reception which his gorgeous ' entry 
had been calculated to evade. "The sight of the man," 
says Dalrymple, 1 "took away the merit of the concession." 
He had witnessed, in fact, an earnest of that strong feel- 
ing which the populace held against him, which they were 
ready to let loose upon him at the earliest moment of 
impunity. He met with treatment as severe as could 
then be shown him ; conduct, which, while it evinced a 
sense of his former tyranny, no less revealed a ripening 
contempt for the weak government. Treby was made 
recorder ; and Sir John Shorter, a churchman, lord mayor 
in the room of Eyles, who was an anabaptist. A simul- 
taneous retribution was ordered in favour of other corpo- 
rations- about the same time. 

The fall of the great minister may be dated from this 
time : he seems, indeed, to have been very sensible of his 
approaching fate, and, in the recent city transactions, he 



1 Dalrymple declares, that Sunderland prompted these measures of 
grace. They were all cowards together, except the monarch, who, 
whatever might have been his devoted bigotry, can never be suspected 
of personal fear. 



272 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



appeared far less florid or frolicsome than he was wont 
to be ; which, for him, was considered a very bad omen. 
Soon after this a petition was proposed by some of the 
bishops, and other lords : it was to implore the King, that 
he would save the shedding of blood, as the Prince of 
Orange had landed. Lord Halifax was asked to sign it ; 
but he inquired of Lord Clarendon, whether it was fit that 
the chancellor's name should be put to it : that noble earl 
answered, that, whether Jeffreys signed or not, it was no 
concern to him, he should not decline on that account to 
become a party to it. — "Then," said Lord Halifax, "I 
will not join with any who have sat in the ecclesiastical 
commission." 

The last official act, which fell to the chancellor's lot, 
was the calling of a parliament. This was agreed on, 
in the King's dinner-room, towards the close of Novem- 
ber, and the writs were issued on the next day. Lord 
Clarendon spoke with great freedom at the meeting of 
the council, where this was determined, laying open the 
principal miscarriages which had embroiled the kingdom ; 
but the King was displeased at his candour. The earl 
called soon afterwards upon Jeffreys at his chamber in 
Whitehall, when he was made acquainted with the royal 
displeasure ; but the chancellor added, that he hoped, 
now the writs were out, His Majesty would be reconciled 
to his old friends. 

The alarm, however, had become general, every one 
was shifting for himself; and after this all was confusion, 
till the assembling of the convention parliament, and the 
accession of William. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 273 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Flight of James II — The lord chancellor is ill spoken of by the fugitive 
monarch— The great seal is consigned to the Thames, and is found by 
a fisherman— Jeffreys conceals himself on board a collier — A scrivener, 
whom the chancellor had brow-beat at a former time, discovers the 
fallen judge — He is seized and carried before Sir John Chapman, lord 
mayor — He is sent to the Tower, on a charge of treason — Petition of 
the widows and orphans in the west of England against him — Four 
questions propounded by the peers to the ex-chancellor — Death of 
Jeffreys— Causes of his demise — His place of sepulture — Anecdotes — 
Curious writings in vituperation of the fallen chancellor at the time 
of his imprisonment — His good and ill qualities — His splendid talents 
— Attainder of Jeffreys and his heirs attempted — His landed posses- 
sions — His portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller — Some account of his son, 
John, Lord Jeffreys — Fable supposed to have been written by him — 
He espouses a daughter of the earl of Pembroke — Conclusion. 

It was now no secret, that sauve qui pent was the 
ruling principle that prevailed at court. Indeed, it was 
in operation every where, save in the camp of the in- 
vader. 

James, who held the Roman faith dearer than his do- 
minions, hastened to escape from the land of protestant- 
ism, and to exchange his forlorn state for the splendid 
asylum which his brother of France had proffered. Yet, 
deserted by his children and friends, abandoned by the 
nobles, and disliked by the multitude, he had not expe- 
rienced these reverses, till he had himself forgotten the 
remembrance of past services. When Duke of York, he 
had a solicitor who advanced his interests, and counselled 
him in the hour of necessity: when he mounted the 



274 LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 



throne, he had the same man for a chief justice, who put 
down rebellion by his order, though at the expense of 
deep popular odium ; and when the seals were to be dis- 
posed of, there was still the same judge for his minister, 
whose advice, if followed, would have ensured the sceptre 
to his posterity. Jeffreys was not remembered in the 
day of danger ; for when the monarch left his throne, he 
also left a faithful, and to the crowd an obnoxious chan- 
cellor. But that the King's undoubted courage is of uni- 
versal acknowledgment, it might be that personal anxiety 
would be offered in excuse for such conduct ; yet, even 
then, time enough had elapsed in which the minister 
might have been warned of his fate, and assured of a safe 
shelter. No such intention was held at court ; for there 
it seemed to have been well understood that a victim was 
to be sacrificed, and that the unfortunate Jeffreys was 
marked for the atoning scape-goat. When James was 
seized at Feversham, he acted most consistently with this 
policy. He called for his landlord, and asked his name. 
On inquiry, this man turned out to be one who had been 
fined at the chancellor's instance. Finding this, the crafty 
prince bade the host draw a discharge as effectually as 
he chose; and he then signed it with this Jesuitical ad- 
dress: "I am sensible that my lord chancellor hath been 
a very ill man, and hath done very ill things." That 
nobleman was in the Tower when this happened; so that 
he was not only betrayed, but even reproached by his 
master for services, in the execution of which he had been 
too complying. 

The royal fugitive departed from Whitehall on the 11th 
of December; and it is remarkable, that he gave Father 
Petre and Lord Mellfort notice of his flight, leaving his 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 275 



keeper of the seals, to share those miseries of which he 
had in part been the instrument. Yet there was, in truth, 
no keeper of his conscience at this time; for the great 
seal had been taken from Jeffreys some days before ; and 
far from appointing another, the monarch ordered that 
the insignia should be thrown into the river: 1 they were 
discovered by a fisherman, and brought to London : which 
gives Sir John Dalrymple occasion to observe, that 
" Heaven seemed by this accident to declare, that the 
laws, the constitution, and the sovereignty of Britain, 
were not to depend upon the frailty of man." Had Sir 
John witnessed our unprejudiced days, he might have 
heard of a great seal being defaced, and a new one made, 
without the least apprehension for our great charters. 
During the short interval which passed between the 
escape of James and his capture, the populace took their 
opportunity, and rose, as all mobs do, for the sake of 
plunder and pillage. 2 Their fury was mainly bent against 
the papists: they committed every feasible outrage on the 
priests, whom they held in abomination; and "they rifled 
the houses of several popish ambassadors." 

Indeed, the King owed his arrest to the hatred which 
prevailed against these Romish confessors ; for some 
fishermen had been out "priest-codding," as they called 
it, that is, endeavouring to intercept the flying clergy, 
and so got sight of His Majesty, while the ballast was 
getting ready for his bark. 

And there was one other person whose face the mob 
most earnestly desired to see: they had a most awful 

' Reresby says, that Jeffreys took the broad seal along with him. 
' Order was given by the lords at Whitehall to fire on them with bul- 
let, in case of necessity. 



276 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



longing for the great terrorist, and used every exertion 
to get the late chancellor into their power. Need the 
reader be told, that of all men he was at this time the 
most execrated ? that of stories the most absurd concern- 
ing him, there was not one which would not have met the 
greediest credit; that he was, in a word, the very same 
devil whom they burnt in effigy in the reign of Charles 
II.? 1 

Equally clear it is, that the persecuted nobleman was 
fully conscious of the mercy he should experience from 
such a multitude ; that he knew well the justice of hang- 
ing him first, and examining his conduct afterwards, or, 
perhaps, not considering it at all ; and that Whitehall was 
of all places the leat safe for one so notorious. And, in- 
deed, the public feeling was high in favour of James for 
leaving such a signal victim to the general fury : for the 
duke of Buckingham relates, that this act was held to be 
generous, and that the king was for ever compassionating 
his subjects who had died in the west. However, the duke 
freely says, that this "mysterious absconding" cost the 
minister his life. 

The crowd had but a slender hope of laying their hands 
upon this principal malefactor, as he was reputed ; for 
perceiving how the tide had turned, he left his lodging, 
and hid himself at a little house at Wapping, whence he 

* The following is an admirable specimen of mob cowardice: — 

Now may you hear the people as they scoure 
Along, not fear to damn the chancellor: 
Then women too, and all the tender crew, 
That us'd to pity all, now laugh at you. 
The very boys, how they do grin and prate, 
And giggle at the bills upon your gate ! 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 277 



might escape beyond sea; upon which it was very natu- 
rally rumoured, that he had gone with the King. 

And now "George Jeffreys, who boasted his face was 
of brass," was compelled to clothe himself in the best 
disguise that he could. He was not merely running from 
the mob, though that had been wise enough, but from 
the Prince of Orange, and the lords of the council: he 
had an equal dread of all the factions. When a courtier 
asked him, soon after his expedition to the city, what the 
heads of the Prince's declaration were, he answered, " He 
was sure his was one, whatever the rest were." 

The person now marked out for destruction was rather 
above the middling stature; his complexion inclining to 
fair, and of a comely appearance. His face showed 
briskness, but mixed with- an air which might breed a 
suspicion of some little lurking malice and unpleasant- 
ness. He had a piercing eye, and a br-ow most com- 
manding, in the management of which he showed a 
great accomplishment, whether it pleased him to terrify 
or to conciliate. Some say, that he was bloated by in- 
temperance ; and if so, he required a most wary conceal- 
ment, and a faithful guide upon an emergency like the 
present. However, he had the sense to cut off his fierce 
eyebrows, and to wrap himself in the garb of a sailor, or 
a collier: as the poet sings concerning him : — 

He took a collier's coat to sea to go : 
Was ever chancellour arrayed so? 
and again : — 

Jeffreys was prepar'd for sailing, 
In his long tarpaulin gown.* 

1 James, in his Memoirs, merely says, that my lord chancellor was seized 
in the confusion, and being committed to the Tower, died soon afterwards. 

24 



278 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



His plan was to go to Hamburgh by a coal-barge, which 
pretended to be bound for Newcastle, spies being ordered 
at all the ports by Admiral Herbert. However, the mate 
of this vessel was a man of treachery, and gave private 
information of his retreat: upon which some people ap- 
plied to a magistrate for a warrant, which the justice re- 
fused. Baffled in this, they went to the council-board, 
and told their story to the lords, who forthwith gave them 
the authority they desired. Off they went to search the 
collier ; but Jeffreys had some doubt of his security 
there, and on that night he thought proper to lie in an- 
other ship which was near at hand, by which means he 
escaped the execution of the warrant for a few hours : yet 
he had the extreme indiscretion to make his appearance 
the next morning at a little ale-house, with the sign of 
the Red Cow, in Anchor and Hope Alley, near King Ed- 
ward's Stairs, and there he had a pot of ale. He was 
in his sailing accoutrements, with a seaman's cap on; and 
he put his head through the window to look out. Most 
unhappily, there passed by at that instant the same mi- 
serable scrivener who had been so struck with his face 
when he came to be relieved from the "Bummery " bond. 
— " I shall never forget the terrors of that man's face 
while I live," said he, at that time, to his friend, and now 
he started at the ominous recollection. This scrivener, 
and the clerk in Chancery mentioned by Kennet, may be 
fairly considered the same person. Nichols tells us, that 
the attorney came in to look for a client; and Kennet, 
that the clerk caught the peeping chancellor at the window. 
Most probably, having noticed the remarkable visage, 
Mr. Trimmer 1 came in, under pretence of business, that 

' This was the name which made Jeffreys call for him in open court, 



LIFE OF JFF1 i 279 



he might satisfy himself. Jeffreys seems to have known 
the scared lawyer as well; for he feigned a cough, and 
turned to the wall with his beer in his hand. But, alas 
for the poor ex-chancellor ! his hour was come ; the in- 
exorable trimmer proclaimed him aloud, and the rabble 
burst in upon him. The occasion of this sad disaster is 
said to be, that he waited too long for the tide. 1 That 
the discovery was not instantly crowned with murder ; in 
effect, that the fugitive was not torn in pieces, limb by 
limb, — must be attributed to a kind Providence which in- 
terfered to give him a few months' respite ; for (and we 
cannot be astonished,) the mobile, as he would call them 
when chief justice, was disposed very summarily to whip 
and hang him. A few doggerel verses written at the time 
very sufficiently explain the meaning of the crowd: — 

The mobile and rout, with clubs and staves, 

Swore that his carcass ne'er should lie in graves ; 

They'd eat him up alive within an hour ; 

Their teeth should tear his flesh, and him devour ; 

Limb him they would, as boys at Shrovetide do : 

Some cried, I am for a wing, an arm; for what are you ? 

I am for his head, says one; for his brains, says t'other ■: 

And I am for his nose ; his ears another : 

Oh, cries a third, I am for his buttocks brave, 

Nine pounds of steaks from I hem I mean to have: 



and express the desire he had to see a trimmer, which frightened him so 
seriously. 

1 There is still another account in the London Courant : that Mr. 
Gaunt, whose wife was executed for high-treason, two or three years be- 
fore, caused the judge to be apprehended, as having passed sentence upon 
her ; but, unluckily for this statement, Chief Justice Jones was the judge 
who gave the sentence upon that occasion. Mr. Burnham was the name 
of the solicitor; and the master of the house was Mr. Porter, the master 
of a Newcastle sloop. — See Nichols's Leicestershire. 



280 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



I know the rogue is fleshy, says a fourth, 

The sweetbreads, lungs, and heart, then nothing worth; 

Yes, quoth another, but not good to eat ; 

A heart of steel will ne're prove tender meat. 

Considering the desperate treatment which Cinna met 
•with from the Roman vulgar when mistaken for the con- 
spirator of that name, and the instant punishment which 
fell upon the unfortunate Dr. Lamb 1 in the days of Charles 
I., 'it is rather beyond mere hypochondriacal wonder, that 
this man was not mutilated on the spot. Nevertheless, 
it was determined to carry him before the lord mayor, 
which, as we shall see, occasioned another tragedy. He 
was conveyed in his blue jacket, with his hat flapped 
down upon his face, in a coach guarded by several blun- 
derbusses. When he came to the mayor's house, the 
crowd became immense, and their vociferating cries of 
"Vengeance! Justice! Justice!" were so numerous, as 
to create some apprehension. The chief magistrate came 
out into his balcony with his hat in his hand, and begged 
that the people would retire ; he said, justice should be 
done them, and that their prisoner should be secured till 
the lords of the council should determine upon his destiny. 
But the mayor lost his life through this event. He was 
Sir John Chapman, whom we have already mentioned; 
and who had a tolerably amicable understanding with 
Jeffreys. When the hat w r as lifted up which concealed 
that minister's face, and he beheld a countenance which 
was wont to inspire terror into all beholders, — the shock 
was so great as to occasion a fainting or convulsion fit; 

* A creature of the Duke of Buckingham, who was murdered by the 
mob in 1623. The rabble declared, that if his master, the duke, had 
been there, they would have given him as much. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 281 



and the next day so many fits came on, as to end his life 
by palsy very soon afterwards. 1 Ralph writes thus, al- 
luding to the time of Jeffreys's capture: "Eyery face 
that he saw was the face of a fury : every grasp he felt, 
he had reason to think was that of the demon that waited 
for him : every voice that he could distinguish in so wild 
an uproa,r, overwhelmed him with reproaches; and his 
conscience echo'd within him, that he deserved them all. 
In this miserable plight, in these merciless hands, with 
these distracted thoughts, and with the horror and de- 
spair in his own ghastly face, that was the natural result 
of all, he was goaded on to the lord mayor." Notwith- 
standing this impressive charge of cowardice, it is by no 
means so certain that this high individual was bereft of 
a due presence of mind. Fancy will frequently depict 
the most melancholy appearances, which are but shadows, 
merely because the occasion seems to call for them. When 
the seizure was made, he was asked if he were not the 
chancellor. He said, " I am the man." He begged that 
he might be kept from the enraged populace, and thus 
came protected by a strong guard. This account varies 

1 He died March 17, 1689: some say he died of apoplexy. It is sup- 
posed that the panic with which this worthy citizen was afflicted had so 
great an effect as to deprive him of all reason and resolution; so that 
Jeffreys was actually obliged to assist in drawing the warrant for his 
own commitment. This was the first warrant. Truly, the lord mayors 
do not seem to have figured much in those days ! Sir Thomas Blud wort h, 
for example, who was so dreadfully scared at the great fire of London ! 
At the tumultuous assemblies for the election of sheriffs in the latter 
part of Charles the Second's reign, the chief magistrate had screwed 
his nerves up most painfully before he could do any thing, and was even 
thenbacked upof necessity by Jeffreys in all his terrors: and in 1780, living 
memory can testify that the riots in the city astonished the very worthy 
man who presided there. 

24* 



282 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



in no way from the former, except that it omits the co- 
loured interpretations of a rabble. 

It was dinner-time when the extraordinary guest was 
announced at the Mansion-house ; but the hospitalities 
of the city were not wanting, for the lord mayor begged 
his old acquaintance to sit at the upper end of the table, 
where he received a very honourable entertainment. — 
Still the people pressed from without ; and it was sug- 
gested, that the peer might be dismissed by a back-way ; 
but a gentleman made his way into the room, declaring 
that the chancellor was the mayor's prisoner, and that 
the magistrate must answer his forthcoming with his own 
blood. 1 Upon this two regiments of the train-bands were 
sent for to move him to the Tower ; a body most neces- 
sary to ward off the increasing violence of the mob. — 
The Lord Lucas received him on his request ; for such an 
imprisonment was a deliverance from instant death ; and 
soon afterwards, a legitimate order was received from the 
lords to commit him on a charge of high treason. 2 There 
was, however, considerable difficulty in rescuing the state 
prisoner, even with so powerful a guard, so sternly did 



1 Which he certainly did, if he died of apoplexy. 

s Before the warrant, the following words were ordered to be insert- 
ed : — "Whereas the Lord Jeffreys was seized and brought to the house 
of the lord mayor, and was there in great danger by the insults of the 
people : to secure him, therefore, from the said violence, and at his de- 
sire to the Lord Lucas to remove him to the Tower, the following order 
was made," &c. Then the warrant. After the warrant, these words 
followed :—" The lords appointed to examine the Lord Jeffreys, were 
desired by the Lord Jeffreys to return to the lords his humble thanks for 
their care in preserving him from violence." The lords appointed to 
examine Lord Jeffreys were, Lord North and Grey, Lord Chandos, and 
Lord Ossulston. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 283 



the people press against him, at the peril of their very 
lives. Jeffreys was so sensible of the danger which me- 
naced him on all sides, that he held up his hands, some- 
times on one side of the coach, sometimes on the other ; 
and observing the open-mouthed wolves, who were push- 
ing on all sides with whips and halters, exclaimed, "For 
the Lord's sake keep them off!" — "For the Lord's sake 
keep them oft' I" 1 Oldmixon, who tells us of his own habits 
of compassion for malefactors in general, declares that 
he saw these agonizing alarms without pity. Surely many 
a brave man would prefer to be blown from the mouth of 
a cannon, to the fate of being swalloAved up, or dissected 
alive, by his own countrymen. As soon as it became well 
known that their old enemy was safely caged in the Tower, 
the good people of the west, the women in particular, be- 
gan to murmur loudly for redress. The same multitude 
who were too terrified to join the Prince for some days, 
lest the Judge with his hangings of scarlet cloth 2 should 
come suddenly down upon them, were now transported with 
rage, and demanded that he should be brought down help- 
less and unarmed to have vengeance wreaked upon him. 

We give " The humble Petition of the widows and 
fatherless children in the west of England. 

" We, to the number of a thousand and more, widows 
and fatherless children, of the counties of Dorset, So- 
merset, and Devon ; our dear husbands and tender fathers 



1 This fury was not confined to the rabble; for we find Mr. Harbord, 
a member of the House of Commons, moving, that two of the judges 
who approved the King's dispensing power should be hanged, by way of 
example, at Westminster-hall gate. 

a Jeffreys decorated the walls of the courts with scarlet, during part 
of the western assize. 



28*1 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



having been so tyrannously butcher'd, and' some trans- 
ported ; our estates sold from us, and our inheritance cut 
off, by the severe and harsh sentence of George, Lord 
Jeffreys, now, we understand, in the Tower of London, a 
prisoner ; who has lately, we hear, endeavoured to excuse 
himself from those tyrannical and illegal sentences, by 
laying it on information by some gentlemen, who are 
known to us to be good Christians, true Protestants, and 
Englishmen. We, your poor petitioners, many hundreds 
of us, on our knees have begg'd mercy for our dear hus- 
bands and tender parents from his cruel hands, but his 
thirst for blood was so great, and his barbarism so cruel, 
that instead of granting mercy for some, which were made 
appear to be innocent, and petitioned for by the flower 
of the gentry of the said counties, he immediately execu- 
ted ; and so barbarously, that a very good gentlewoman 
at Dorchester, begging on her knees the life of a worthy 
gentleman to marry him, and make him her husband ; 
this vile wretch, having not common civility with him, 
and laying aside that honour and respect due to a person 
of her worth, told her, 'Come, I know your meaning ; 
some part of your petition I will grant, which shall be, 
that after he is hanged and quartered, * * * * 

# * * *** # * * - * 

and so I will give orders to the sheriff.' These, with 
many hundred more tyrannical acts, are ready to be 
made appear in the said counties, by honest and credi- 
table persons ; and therefore your petitioners desire, that 
the said George Jeffreys, late lord chancellor, the vilest 
of men, may be brought down to the counties aforesaid, 
where we, the good women in the west, shall be glad to 
see him, and give him another manner of welcome than 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 285 



he had there three years since. And your petitioners shall 
ever pray," &c. 

These furious women irresistibly remind us of the pois- 
sardes, who were by far the most active of the Parisian 
rabble at the Revolution ; and, like them, they would have 
delighted in immolating a victim. And in London the 
people were in full expectation of a public execution ; nay, 
according to a poetical letter to the lord chancellor, they 
continued as intent as ever upon his speedy fate. Having 
recommended the nobleman to cut his throat, the writer 
ends his epistle thus : — 

" I am your lordship's, in any thing of this nature. — 
From the little house over against Tyburn, where the 
people are almost dead with expectation of you." From 
such assemblages the composer of the "New Protestant 
Litany" should have said, Libera nos, Domine ! as well 
as from godfather pope, and gunpowder bonfires. 

Jeffreys was taken on the 12th of December, and His 
Majesty was conveyed back to London soon afterwards ; 
but it does not appear, that between the times of this 
unlucky attempt and the final embarkation of the mo- 
narch for France, there was any favourable notice of his 
ancient favourite. Glad to emancipate himself from a 
kingdom where the heretic flag was triumphant, James 
looked forward to no greater pleasure than the solaces of 
priestcraft, and lifting up of the crucifix. He had bidden 
a farewell 1 to old England, and to most of his friends 

1 THE FAREWELL. 

Farewel Petre, farewel Cross; 



Farewel Chester, farewel Ass; 



Jeffrey: 



George Jeffreys who boasted his face was of lira? 
Is now metamorplios'il into a Welsh ass, &c. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



who were not of the Roman communion, leaving behind 
him a character which would to God the people of this 
land would hold deeply in their memories ! — a prinCe of 
bravery, of virtue, and of kindness, where no priest or 
Jesuit interfered ; but one whom no tie, moral or political, 
could restrain, when a zeal for his religion came in 
question. 

It was thought fit to examine Jeffreys on the day after 
his commitment ; and for this purpose a deputation of 
lords was appointed. Four questions were agreed on to 
be asked of him. First, What he had done with the great 
seal of England ? To this he answered, that he had de- 
livered it to the King on the Saturday before at Mr. 
Cheffnell's, no person being present, and never saw it 
since. He was next asked, Whether he had sealed all 
the writs for the parliament, and what he had done with 
them ? To the best of his remembrance, he said, the 
writs were all sealed and delivered to the King. Thirdly, 



Farewel Peterborough, farewel Toql ; 
Farewel Sun land, farewel Fool. 

Farewel Milford, farewel Scot ; 
Farewel Butler, farewel Sot ; 
Farewel Roger, farewel Trimmer; 
Farewel Dryden, farewel Rhymer. 

Farewel Brent, farewel Villain ; 
Farewel Wright, worse than Tresilian 
Farewel Chancellor, farewel Mace ; 
Farewel Prince, farewel Race. 

Farewel Queen, and farewel Passion ; 
Farewel King, farewel Nation ; 
Farewel Priests, and farewel Pope ; 
Farewel all deserve a rope. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 287 



Had he sealed the several patents for the then ensuing 
year ? He declared that he had sealed several patents 
for the new sheriffs, but that he could not charge his me- 
mory with the particulars. It was, lastly, inquired, 
Whether he had a license to go out of the kingdom ? — 
And to this he replied, that he had several to go beyond 
sea, which were all delivered to Sir John Friend, &c. — 
He subscribed these answers thus : — "I affirm all this to 
be true upon my honour. — Jeffreys." 

An order came on the 22d for keeping him in a closer 
restraint; but he had, nevertheless, the courage to de- 
mand his habeas corpus, in order to his being bailed, but 
was not successful. 

After he had been in confinement for a few days, he 
was most cruelly tantalized by the arrival of a barrel as 
a present, which appeared to contain oysters: 1 seeing 
this, he said to the bearer, " Well, then, I see I have. some 
friends left still," and opened the barrel. The gift was 
a good able halter. 

And now we have arrived at the consummation of this 
great man's destiny, his lingering struggles in the Tower 
being little regarded amidst the din of warfare which was 
sounding without. For James was about to land at Kin- 
sale with the French supplies, when Jeffreys died. It is 
curious to note the various causes assigned by historians 
for his decease. Some kill him in his own way, by ex- 
cessive and intemperate drinking ; but his commonly bi- 
bacious habits might have given an easy foundation for 
this opinion, as it is most difficult and most unwise too, 
for any lover of the bottle to descend suddenly into the 

1 Some refine upon this, and say, " the best Colchestei oysters." 



288 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



vale of abstemiousness. Others will have it, that the 
chiefs of the mobility did him great injury, and that ter- 
ror, lest he should fall into their hands, completed the 
shock he had received. Then again, we hear of his dying 
furiously and wildly like a raving beast ; a report which 
must have greatly gratified the superstitious vulgar, who 
were probably the creators of it, and doubtless conjured 
up his unquiet spirit as a bugbear for a quarter of a cen- 
tury afterwards. A much more sensible conjecture would 
be, that from an unusual imprisonment he had aggravated 
an ill habit of body, and heightened his chronic disorders. 
Accordingly there appears to be great fidelity in the ac- 
count which states that fits of the stone came on with 
such violence as to baffle the skill of his physician. Dr. 
Lower, 1 an ingenious man, attended him; but although 
his patient was but forty-one years of age, he found na- 
ture .exhausted beyond the reach of medical skill. — "It 
is generally reported," says Echard, "that he shortened 
his days, and in a manner daspatched himself, by drink- 
ing of the most spirituous liquors ; but I have been as- 
sur'd to the contrary by a very credible person, 2 who was 
often with him in his confinement, who said, that the 
stone was the only bodily distemper that killed him." 

Anguish of mind and disappointment are also among 
the probable bitternesses which harassed him; so that he 
is said, in some milder relations, to have perished by a 
broken heart. And far from leaving the stage in a state 
of frenzied impiety, there are premises from which we 

* Richard Lower. Probably the ingenious medical writer who wrote 
the "Universal Medicine," which was published in France and Sweden. 
He was also the author of many other treatises. 

9 Probably Dr. Scott, of whom we shall speak presently. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 289 



may conclude that he died repentant, and under a due 
sense of religion. For it is said on the authority of Sir 
Joseph Jekyll, that Dr. John Scott 1 visited the fallen 
judge in his prison, who promised to profit by the exhor- 
tations of his minister, and review his past life as a sea- 
sonable improvement of the situation he had come into. 
Jeffreys expressed great concern for his past errors ; but 
for one, and that too the greatest of his alleged misdeeds, 
he could never be induced to yield an unqualified regret. 
However cruel his western proceedings might have been 
thought, whatever the censures which had been heaped ' 
upon that part of his administration, he solemnly adhered, 
in these almost his dying hours, to this text, that the se- 
verities had fallen short of the King's demand, and that 
he had extremely displeased the monarch by his forbear- 
ance. It is not to be combated, that the men who fell 
by the sentence of Jeffreys died by law; and that cir- 
cumstance makes the distinction between his executions 
and those of Kirk. Kindness to the human race was 
scarcely better understood in those times, even by per- 
sons of reputation, than mercy to dumb animals 2 in these, 
till the rise of Martin. Forbearance was then esteemed 
a crime, as rigorous justice would be at this day. And 
truly, it is to be hoped that posterity will kindly invent 
some excuse for us, when those who succeed us shall blot 



1 Author of " The Christian Life." Sir Joseph heard this from the 
mouth of the doctor. 

2 Indeed, it is but of late that we have learned to treat our own chil- 
dren with kindness, and to be persuaded that however agreeable hard- 
ships might have been to the sons of giants, who wore coats of mail, we 
of this generation shall be much wiser in fostering the little strength 
which is imparted to this winter of the world. 

25 



290 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



out our capital punishments from the statute-book, and 
wonder, as we now do, at the harshness, of those who 
have gone past. 

The noble penitent, moreover, complained that he had 
been urged on by one of the reverend bench, 1 to enforce 
the rigours of the ecclesiastical commission far beyond 
his inclination ; and his approved steadfastness in favour 
of the established church must strongly call upon us to be- 
lieve that this palliation also has some weight. Indeed, 
to say that the chancellor had no religion in the days of 
his prosperity, would be an outrage upon history ; since 
we know that he stood firmly by the Protestant standard, 
and that the threatened loss of his place had no power 
to wean him from his native creed. To assert then that 
he died a reprobate, is a gratuitous slander of his whig 
enemies, containing as much truth, perhaps, as the pages 
of those speculative voyagers, whose adventurous travels 
have been concocted and accomplished by their own fire- 
sides. "God knows how often all of us have taken the 
great name of God in vain," said Jeffreys one day, in all 
the plenitude of his chief justiceship; "or have said more 
than becomes us, and talked of things we should not do." 
Yet some of the good-natured booksellers, in a few reigns 
afterwards, seem to have decided his ultimate destiny 
very unfavourably, placing him in a situation far worse 
than purgatory. There was published, about the year 
1714, "A Letter from Hell, from Lord Ch— r Jeffreys, 

to L — C — B — W d, relating to James Taylor's 

standing in the pillory. 4to." 

Although this unfortunate nobleman was thus em- 

' Most likely Crew, bishop of Durham, 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 291 



ployed in meditating on his past mistakes, he certainly 
was not quite so far lost to the world as to abandon all 
hopes of a better fortune. He, therefore, made offers of 
political disclosures to government ; which, it seems, were 
entertained, and even courted by the parties who were 
applied to : so that had the Lord Jeffreys lived, he might 
not have been so near "a place of execution" as his ene- 
mies desired ; and, in fact, it would not be hazarding a 
strange opinion to say at once, that he would have 
escaped with impunity, owing to the turbulent and un- 
certain spirit of the parliament. Having so long had the 
arcana imperii at his command, it is not to be wondered 
at that his information would be deemed worthy of notice 
in such critical times. Illness, however, and death su- 
pervened. — The great man died on the 19th of April, 
1G89, at 35 minutes past four in the morning. 

Doubts have prevailed as to the place of his burial ; for 
there is a tradition that he was laid at Enfield, 1 which 
seems to be utterly incorrect. Mr. Bayley gives the 
most satisfactory account of the last rites which were 
rendered upon this occasion. He was first interred in 
the Tower privately, and his remains rested there in 
peace for three years, when his friends, finding that the 
hot day of persecution was over, begged that they might 
be allowed to remove the coffin. They had no mind, it 
seems, to risk much mention of the subject before, as the 
disgrace of Ireton and other Cromwellians was by no 
means erased from living memory; and whose bones so 



1 At the east end of the south aisle, in a vault belonging to the manor 
of Durance. His eldest daughter married the son and heir of Judge 
Stringer, who was lord of the manor. 



292 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



likely to be dug up and gibbeted as those of Jeffreys, if 
the people fancied that they would have it so ? Indeed, 
to gratify the multitude, the government might not have 
scrupled more in this instance than the successful con- 
querors of 1746, who elevated the noble heads of the re- 
bellion upon the height of Temple-bar. Johnson, walk- 
ing near that impregnable city gate some years after- 
wards with Goldsmith, slily observed, in allusion to their 
politics at that time of day, — 

Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis. 

A warrant was given, dated the 30th of September, 
1692, signed by the Queen, and directed to the governor 
of the tower, " for his delivering the body of George, late 
Lord Jefferies, to his friends and relations, to bury him 
as they think fit." 

He was accordingly disinterred, and buried a second 
time in a vault under the communion-table of St. Mary 
Aldermanbury, on the 2d of November, 1693. There 
was a story very current there, that the apprentices of 
the parish tumultuously assisted in this removal ; but 
Malcolm, in his account of London, treats this as merely 
fabulous; adding, however, that the apprentices might 
have run riot upon the occasion, as such conduct was by 
no means uncommon in those reigns. 

One would have thought that the judge's bones might 
now be considered as undisturbed ; and whether his final 
lot were hallowed or accursed, his remains would at least 
be suffered to dwindle away in peace : yet curiosity has 
been more than once gratified with a sight of them, and 
the leaden coffin has been very recently found in a state 
of perfect preservation. Malcolm was told by the sex- 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 293 

toness, in 1803, that she had seen it entire in its rich 
clothing of crimson velvet with gilt furniture. 

Some years afterwards, in 1810, certain workmen em- 
ployed to repair the church discovered the place of in- 
terment, by removing a large fiat stone near the commu- 
nion-table. The coffin, which appeared to have suffered 
little from decay, was closed, and there was a plate with 
the name of Chancellor Jeffreys inscribed. When the 
public had been satisfied with a view of these remarkable 
remains, a gaze which some would brand as unhallowed, 
the coffin was replaced in the vault, and the stone fas- 
tened over it. But the body was not seen ; for although 
a sight of it would have highly pleased the ambition of 
the curious, no one adventured to lay violent hands upon 
the case which contained it. 

When the great Johnson died, many small wits and 
hungry pens were at work on the instant, to depreciate 
or to ridicule him. The possessors of these little wea- 
pons cared not whether they took aim at his personal de- 
ficiencies, or supposed literary errors, provided they had 
the intense satisfaction of sending forth their poor puffs 
as speedily as might be. But one circumstance struck 
all his friends and admirers, and amongst others the late 
Dr. Parr, whose indignation was kindled at it ; — and this 
was, that many of these critics dared not to have attacked 
the doctor in his life-time. Some one made a slighting 
remark on him in Parr's presence, — "Ay," quoth the 
blunt clergyman, " now the old lion is dead, every ass 
thinks lie may kick at him." And it really falls to the 
lot of most great men to be served very much in the same 
way. No sooner was that man in his grave, whom all 
feared alike as counsel, chief justice, chancellor, — than 
25* 



294 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



there sprang up satires and reflections upon his memory, 
which are vastly at variance with history, and which he 
could have sufficiently answered, but for the stroke of 
disease or death. And it is observable, that the scrib- 
bling rabble commenced their operations against him as 
soon as be went to the Tower, doubtless conceiving them- 
selves secure from his vengeance. 

The two remarkable papers which we insert, will be 
found to contain charges of hypocrisy; of which, at least 
of many, Jeifreys can hardly be deemed guilty : — 

The first of these is entitled, " The Chancellor's Exa- 
mination and Preparation for a Trial." It was printed 
for W. Cademan, in 1689, and runs as follows : — 

"As the long imprisonment of George, Lord Jefferies, 
the high chancellor of England, has given him ample lei- 
sure for a full and serious consideration of his state, his 
examination of his fatal circumstances, and prepara-. 
tion for his trial, with all other necessary and due reflec- 
tions, previous as well to the appearance, not only before 
so great a tribunal here, but also a greater and more ter- 
rible one to come, have induced him to this timely provi- 
sion of his last will and testament. 

" In the name of Ambition, the only god of our setting- 
up and worshipping, together with Cruelty, Treachery, 
Perjury, Pride, Insolence, &c. his ever adored angels and 
archangels, cloven-footed, or otherwise, Amen. I, George, 
sometimes lord, but always Jefferies, being in entire bo- 
dily health, (my once great heart, at present dwindled to 
the diminutive dimensions of a French bean, only ex- 
cepted,) and in sound and perfect memory of high-com- 
missions, quo warrantos, regulations, dispensations, pil- 
lorizations, floggations, gibbetations, barbarity, butchery, 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 295 



tyranny, together with the bonds and ties of right, jus- 
tice, equity, law, and gospel; as also those of liberty, 
property, Magna Charta, &c. ; not only at divers and 
sundry, but at all times, by me religiously broken : and 
being reminded by a halter before me, and my sins be- 
hind me, do make my last will and testament in manner 
and form following : 

"Imprimis. — Because it has always been the modish 
departure of great men, and greater sinners, to leave 
some legacy to pious uses, I give and bequeath one thou- 
sand pounds towards the building of a shrine and a cha- 
pel to St. Coleman, for the particular devotion of a late 
very great English zealot ; for whose glory I farther or- 
der my executors to bear half charges in inserting and 
registering the sacred papers and memoirs of the said 
saint, in those divine legends, ' The Lives of the Saints,' 
by the hand of his reverend, and no less industrious suc- 
cessor, Father Peters : that so the never-dying renown of 
the long-sworn meritorious, though unfortunate vengeance 
against the northern heresy, (in which once hopeful vine- 
yard I have been no small labourer,) may be transmitted 
to posterity by so pious a recorder. 

"Item. — As a legacy to her late consort-majesty of 
Great Britain (my some time royal patroness,) I do be- 
queath two thousand crowns to holy mother church, &c. 

" Item. — In tenderness and hearty good-will to my 
some time friends and allies on the other side the herring- 
pond, I think fit, as a small mite to the great cause, to 
order my executors, out of my late son-in-law's estate 
(saved by my own Chancery decree from the Salisbury cre- 
ditors,) as much money to be remitted over to the true 
and trusty Tyrconnel, as will purchase new liveries of 



296 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 

the best Irish frize, completely to rig a whole regiment 
of his newly-raised Teagues ; as also the like quantity 
for the rigging of another regiment of French dragoons, 
now sending over to his excellency's succour ; his Gallic 
majesty having long since ordered the edict of Nantz, 
and all other the parliamentary heretic-records of France, 
to be given them gratis, to make them tailors' measures 
of, in imitation of the English Magna Qharta, some time 
since designed for the same use. 

" But, above all, to take care for my own decent fu- 
neral, lest my executors, to save the charges of Christian 
burial, should drop me under ground as slovenly as my 
old great master at Westminster, — I think fit to order 
the rites and ceremonies of my obsequies as follows : 

" Imprimis. — I desire that my funeral anthems be all 
set to the tune of ' Old Lilliburlero,' that never-to-be-for- 
gotten Irish Shibboleth ; in commemoration not only of 
two hundred thousand heretics that formerly danced off 
to the said musical notes, but also of the second part to 
the same tune, lately designing, setting, and composing 
by a great master of mine, and'myself. The said anthem 
to be sung by a train of seven or eight hundred of my 
own making in the west; who, in their native rags, (a 
livery likewise of my own donation, as a dress fittest for 
the sad cavalcade,) will, I am assured, be no way want- 
ing in their readiest and ablest melody, suitable to the 
occasion. 

"Item. — I order two hundred Jacobuses to be laid out 
in myrrh, frankincense, and other necessary perfumes 
to be burnt at my funeral; to sweeten if possible * 

"Item. — I order an ell and a half of fine cambric to 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 297 



be cut out into handkerchiefs, for drying up all the wet 
eyes at my funeral ; together with half a pint of burnt 
claret for all the mourners in the kingdom. 

"Item. — For the more decent interment of my re- 
mains, I will and require, for the re-cementing of my 
own unhappy politic head to my shoulders again, (pro- 
vided always I have the honour of the axe, as it is much 
questioned,) that a present of a diamond ring be made 
to Madame Labadie, for the use of the same needle, and 
a skain of the same thread, once used on a very import- 
ant occasion, for the quilting of a certain notable cushion 
of famous memory. 

" To conclude : for avoiding all Chancery-suits about 
the disposal of my aforesaid legacies, that the contents 
of this my last will may be made public, I order my exe- 
cutors to take care that this may be printed." 

The second paper is, " The Lord Chancellor's Discovery 
and Confession, made in the time of his Sickness in the 
Tower;" from which, by the way, we shall only give ex- 
tracts. 

"As for that damned town of London; not Cataline 
against old Rome was half so sworn a foe, as I against 
that insolent proud city. Really and sincerely, I would 
willingly and heartily, out of my own pocket, (though I 
sold my last rag in the world,) have been myself at the 
charge of a new monument, so I had had but the pleasure 
of a second same occasion of building it. Nay, verily, I 
envied the fate of the old Erostratus, and that more 
modern worthy, Hubart; and could have wished my own 
name, though at the price of his destiny, engraven in the 
room of that wisely rased-out inscription, on so glorious 
an occasion. 



298 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 

"It was then, alas! edged and enraged with a mortal 
hate, and an avowed vengeance against that accursed and- 
detested city, and more detested parliament : with two 
such meritorious qualifications, I applied myself to the 
once great Coleman's greater master, at that time an 
early, and indeed almost governing pilot at the helm ; 
both infallible recommendations to entitle me to the 
highest hopes of the most exalted honours. In short, I 
entered, listed, and swore myself engineer-general under 
that leading hero's banners ; and how hugged, and how 
embraced, my succeeding almost deluge of good fortune, 
glories, and preferments, will sufficiently testify. 

"And, though the world has sometimes wondered at so 
sudden a rise, as in little more than seven years, to mount 
from a Finsbury pettyfoggcr to a lord high chancellor of 
England ; from bawling at a hedge-court bar for a five 
shillings' fee, to sit equity-driver with ten thousand pounds 
per annum, besides presents and bribes unaccountable, 
honestly gotten. But, alas ! to rectify the mistakes of 
mankind, and suppress their astonishment at so unprece- 
dented an advance, I must assure them, that as no his- 
tory affords a parallel of such a crown favourite as my- 
self, so no age ever yielded such a true crown drudge 
neither, to deserve those favours. Alas ! my darling 
fortunes moved not half so rapid as my dearer counsels 
drove ; and all the caresses of my glory were thought but 
the poorest meed and reward of those services that gained 
them. But to recite my fatal particulars: upon my first 
entrance (as I was saying) of engineer-general, our first 
great attack was against the charter of London ; and, to 
the honour of my premier effort, what by our terrible 
dead-doing quo-tvarrantos, my own invented battering- 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 299 



ram, planted against them at Westminster, and the Tower- 
hill guns removed and mounted against them on the 
Tower-battlements, we soon reduced that imperious town 
to almost as entire a subjection and vassalage, as our own 
hearts, and our Roman friends could wish. 

"Next, for those prorogation-crampers, those check- 
mates of crowns, called parliaments, there our triumph 
was absolute: we prorogued or dissolved, and danced them 
from pillar to post, from Westminster to Oxford, &c. at 
pleasure, and (Heaven knows) with timely, prudent, and 
wise care, to hush their too impudently inquisitive cu- 
riosity into our Coleman's packets, our Le Chaise and 
Lewis intrigues, and the rest of our popish plots and 
cabals, and all, (God knows) little enough to keep our 
cloven-foot undiscovered. 

"Who, alas! but I, with so much unrelenting and piti- 
less barbarity, triumphed in the blood of those poor 
miserable western wretches, and sanguined my very er- 
mines in their gore?" — "Yes, and I acted by the com- 
missioning vengeance that sent me thither to inform the 
heretick enemies of Rome, how much their blood tickles 
when it streams ; and to let them know by the sample of 
my hand, how keen is a popish edge-tool. 

"Was it not I too, that with so much cunning and 
artifice, and by so many rhetorical high-treason flourishes, 
wheedled poor Cornish to a gibbet, and Russel to a scaf- 
fold? Yes; and it was a master-piece! To give the 
trembling world a timely warning what Protestant zeal 
must trust to, when popish malice is pleased to be angry ; 
and to convince how easily can a Jesuitical engine wire- 
draw guilt, when popish rancour is resolved to destroy. 

"Who dissolved all the charters, and new-garbcllcd all 



300 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



the corporations, but Jefferies ? And why ; but to pre- 
pare them to understand that, (what with our quo-war- 
rantor and the rest of our modelling tools,) we were re- 
solved, at last, to have parliaments a la mode de Paris, 
and their dragoon reformers too soon after ? Who in- 
vented that ensnaring command to the bishops, of reading 
the declaration, and put their refusal to the stretch of 
high-misdemeanor, if not high-treason, — but the chan- 
cellor? And why, think you, but to satisfy them what 
Roman eye-sores are the Protestant lawn-sleeves ; and 
that they shall want neither justles nor stumbling-blocks 
to trip their heels up, and their heads off too, when they 
stand in our way ? Who but the great Jefferies, (in de- 
fiance of the very fundamentals of human society, the 
original laws of human nature, and of the face of Magna 
Charta itself,) got the bishop of London silenced and 
suspended, without so much as that universal and com- 
mon right, sacred even amongst heathens and infidels, — 
viz. the privilege of making either plea or defence; con- 
demned, untried, and unheard? Yes, I did it; to instruct 
the world what feeble cobweb-lawn are the bonds of jus- 
tice, law, liberty, common right, &c. in the hands of an 
imperial popish Samson Agonistes ? 

"Was it not I too, by my ecclesiastic, high-commission 
supremacy, (not only against the statutes and customs 
of the university, but the positive laws of the land,) 
turned Maudlin College into a seminary of Jesuits ; and 
in spite of that bulwark of the church of England, the 
Act of Uniformity, converted a collegiate chapel into a 
mass-house? And by the same justice, might not every 
collegiate, cathedral, and parochial church have had the 
same conversion, and both the fountains of religion and 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 301 



learning, the mother universities, been deprived of all 
her Protestant sons, and re-peopled with the whole race 
of St. Omer and Salamanca? 

"Who did all this? The chancellor! Yes; and he 
saved the church of England, and the whole English 
liberty by it. The nation was lulled into so profound a 
sleep, that they wanted such thunder-claps, and such a 
Boanerges, to awaken them from their lethargy. With 
these serious reflections, that these rapid and violent 
motions of the Roman cause are and have been the de- 
struction of it ; who has been the Protestant's champion — 
but I? Who has pulled off the vizor from the scarlet 
whore, and exposed the painted Babylon prostitute — but 
I? And if I drive like Jehu, it was only to the confusion 
of a Jezebel. Who called in the deliverer of our church 
and laws, that second Hannibal, that mighty Nassau — 
but Jefferies? Who has remounted the sinking glory of 
our temples, till their pinnacles shall kiss Heaven, — but 
Jefferies? Who has united two such formidable Protes- 
tant neighbours with that eternal link of interest, as 
shall render us once more the arbiters of Europe, and 
terror of the world — who, but Jefferies? And Jefferies's 
conduct has joined those naval forces, those floating walls, 
that shall one day mew up the French anti-christian 
monster, till in despite and despair, he bursts his soul 
out * * * * ! 

"In fine, who has cut off the very entail of popery 
and slavery from three happy kingdoms — but Jefferies? 
Three kingdoms did I say ? Yes, possibly has laid that 
foundation to the Protestant cause, as perhaps shall one 
day make her overtop the seven proud hills, and strike 
her dagger into the very gates of Rome." 
26 



302 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 

All the tirade which would seem to connect the object 
of these maledictions with papal intrigues are gratuitous, 
and the offspring of a malevolence which is so frequently 
mixed up with the prejudices of passing times. 

Little indeed need be said touching the character of a 
man whose actions have been so repeatedly canvassed, 
and whom to applaud would be deemed a political, if not 
a moral crime. But his bright, sterling talents must be 
acknowledged; that intuitive perception which led him to 
penetrate in a moment the thin veil of hypocrisy, and 
show things as they were, must have its meed. Like 
Thurlow, he had the especial gift of fastening on the true 
genius of the cause, eliciting its nice point, and forming 
a prompt decision on the right bases of equity and justice. 
And he read too at odd unsuspected times ; after a debauch 
of wine, perhaps, Avhen the share which would have stupe- 
fied a man of ordinary intellect, only served to give a 
zest to his ambition, and stimulate the powers of his un- 
derstanding. That he must have read, appears from the 
learning displayed in his judgments : that he must have 
read thus, from the even tenor of his bacchanalian hours ; 
and that due credit was attached to his abilities, is evi- 
dent from the works which were attributed to him by his 
contemporaries. 1 He was sufficiently kind to his friends 
and dependents, consistent with that acute insight into 
the ways of men which he possessed, which made him 
restless in the society of dunces, and impatient of intru- 
ding ignorance. Had he lived a century and a half later, 



1 Vernon's Reports, which are allowed to be most ably drawn: " The 
Magistracy and Government of England vindicated," by Sir B. Shower, 
which drew forth the acrimony of Sir John Hawles's pen. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 303 



though his promotion were retarded or forbidden by his 
debaucheries, he would have held a name for good-humour 
and conviviality amongst his acquaintance, which, however 
unfit to be aspired after to the excess of which he was 
guilty, is yet no bad recommendation to its possessor; 
whilst his sanguinary temper would have lain dormant in 
an age when scarce any error escapes its just scrutiny. 
It is well known that he was extravagant, and therefore 
always needy and borrowing; but in accordance with the 
spirit of the age, every worthy and liberal action which 
he did was carefully concealed, according to Mark An- 
tony's seditious text : — 

The evil, that men do, lives after them ; 
The good is oft interred with their bones; 
So let it be with Ceesar. 

Some contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine ven- 
tured to ask, some years since, what baronet bore certain 
arms, describing them, and suggested that he was proba- 
bly connected with Hertfordshire, or some adjacent county. 
Being informed that Sir George Jeffreys claimed those 
heraldic honours, the inquiring correspondent declares, 
that "the historian of Hertfordshire will now have to 
record the name of that well-known judge as one of the 
contributors to the repair of the abbey church of St. Al- 
ban, in 1683." He adds, that the arms, with those of 
his friend, Lord-keeper North, and fifty other persons, 
are fixed against the walls of the choir, in iterpetuam 
rei memoriam : l but, as we have abundantly shown, the 



' On the pillar north opposite to the third pillar, Jeffreys, of Bulstrode, 
art., and two others.— Clntterbuck. 



304 LIFE OP JEFFREYS. 



friendship of those two great persons must have been 
very suspicious ; it might, indeed, be more correct to sub- 
stitute the words, "political opponent," as no two minis- 
ters ever differed more, whether in the cabinet, the council, 
or in their domestic life. 

We will now forbear any further mention of this noble- 
man as far as his good or ill qualities are concerned: let 
such as doubt his talents examine the grounds and the 
issue of his judicial decisions ; and let those who have 
agreed to the general opprobrium which rests upon his 
memory, look, for the mere sake of charity, to discover 
some redeeming actions, and they will not be disappointed. 
But although death had freed Lord Jeffreys from pub- 
lic ignominy or degrading conciliations, it was determined 
in parliament that some open mark of reproach should 
be fixed on his memory; and it was therefore moved, on 
the 16th of the following May, "that the late chancellor 
and his heirs may be excepted out of the indemnity, in 
order to attainder." Mr. Boscawen had suggested be- 
fore, that he should be "attainted, and reduced to the 
same condition as when he began to offend; and, more- 
over, that his posterity should be incapable of sitting in 
the Lords' House." So that evil was plainly gone forth 
against his descendants, and their fortunes : yet, disliked 
as he necessarily must have been, the simple proposition 
to except him, as the great offender, was not pressed at 
once. Hawles, 1 afterwards the solicitor-general, rested 



' Hawles was born in the Close, at New Sarum, and educated at Win- 
chester-school. He then became a commoner at Queen's in the begin- 
ning of the year 1662; but left the college without a degree, and entered 
himself a student of Lincoln's Inn. He soon rose to eminence in his 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 305 

on the difficulty of punishing the dead; and, said he, 
"when you inquire, you will find the chancellor very little 
more guilty than those who lately passed the proclama- 
tion, little less than the dispensing power." The debate 
was adjourned; and before the matter was finally set at 
rest, the western executions, Oates's dreadful punish- 
ments, and mention of various bribes which had come to 
the late chancellor's coffers, were brought upon the carpet, 
so that the House became better prepared to carry their 
threat into execution. And as several of the judges had 
been excepted in the interim, 1 it was not likely that any 



profession, and found it convenient to adopt King William's whig party 
for his political friends. However, he was defeated in a contest for the 
recordership of London, in 1691; but the honours of King's counsel and 
His Majesty's solicitor-general atoned for the disappointment. He con- 
tinued in his high employment till the end of King William's reign, when 
Simon Harcourt, afterwards chancellor, superseded him: yet, quite con- 
trary to the usual practice, he was not advanced to be attorney-general, 
when Trevor was promoted to the chief justiceship of the Common Pleas, 
Mr. Northey being promoted to that office; and the same thing had hap- 
pened to Trevor, who found Ward placed over his head, after he had 
been solicitor-general. Sir John Hawles wrote " Remarks on the Trials 
of Fitzharris and others," and "A Reply to the Magistracy and Govern- 
ment of England vindicated." Anthony Wood said that he was turbu- 
lent, and inclining to a republic : but Bishop Tanner erased this charac- 
ter of him from the Athenae. 

1 Wright, Herbert, Jenner, Holloway. 

Sir Richard Holloway was the son of a public notary at Oxford, who 
was very active in the business of the city. Wood calls him a " a covet- 
ous civilian." In 1667, when the flying coach was set up from Oxford 
to London, young Richard was one of the six passengers. They started 
at six in the morning, and were set down at their inn at seven in the 
evening. Ward was another passenger. It was a great thing for a coach 
to perform such an immense journey in one day, and public notice of the 
feat was given throughout the university. In 1677, this gentleman was 
made Serjeant at law, there being two other Serjeants of the same name, 

26* 



30G LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



further delay could arise. Sir William Williams, therefore, 
the old Welsh antagonist, declared, on the next conside- 
ration of Jeffreys' penalty, " that no man deserved to be 
excepted more than he ; but will you begin 1 with a dead 
person?" 2 he continued. The exception was instantly 
agreed to. Nor did the affair end here, for Colonel Tip- 
ping soon afterwards spoke warmly upon the fates of 
Armstrong and Mrs. Lisle, and finished thus strongly : 
"He has raised his estate on the ruin of the law: his 
estate and honour are the price of your blood. I move, 
that you will attaint him." And it was resolved, that a 
bill should be brought in for the forfeiture of his honour 
and estate. 3 How this attempt failed, we have alread} r 

Charles, his uncle, and Robert. A few years afterwards he became 
judge of the King's Bench, whence he was ejected by King James after 
the trial of the seven bishops, and he was not restored at the Revolution. 
There were five Holloways living at Oxford in 1667, and the following 
curious verses transpired concerning them: 

" Sarjeant,* Barrister, t Necessities Notarie,§ Mercer,|| 
Gravely dull, IT ill spoken,** Iawless,ff cum purgere,\\ broken. "§§ 

1 The exceptions of the particular day's debate. 

a Williams said on a subsequent occasion, when Sir Robert Sawyer 
endeavoured to excuse himself from being accessary to Armstrong's 
fate, that "all is put upon the dead (Jeffreys;) and the dead must an- 
swer for the dead, and ' the dead bury the dead.' " 

5 In Salop, he had the manors of Wem and Loppington, with many 



* Old Charles Holloway, the uncle. 

| Richard, living against Blue-bore, in St. Aldave's parish. 

\ Young Charles, son of the old Serjeant. 

§ Old Richard Holloway, the judge's father. 

]| Francis, brother to old Charles and old Richard. 

IT In his dotage. 

** Censorious. 

ft ^o railed, because being a barrister and no lawyer, Nrceisitas non habtt Ugem 

\X This is not known. 

M A broken mercer. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 307 



acquainted the reader ; but such was the want of due eco- 
nomy, not only in the chancellor's family, but in his son's 
also who succeeded to the title, that all is said to have 
been spent and squandered; and some of the servants 
who saw the acquisition of a property no less than 
12,000Z. a year, lived long enough to hear of its total 
waste and dispersion. 

There -are several portraits of this chancellor, which 
were taken for the most part whilst he held the seals; 
and Nichols, referring to some of these, says, that " he 
does not appear that monster of ugliness and wickedness 
we have been taught to think him." In 1687, a whole 
length, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, was hung up in the Inner 



other lands and tenements ; in Leicestershire, the manors of Dalby and 
Broughton. He bought Dalby of the Duke of Buckingham; and after 
his death it passed to Sir Charles Duncombe, and descended on Anthony 
Duncombe, afterwards Lord Feversham. In Bucks, he had the manor 
of Bulstrode, which he had purchased of Sir Roger Hill, in 1686; and 
the manor of ^ulmer, with other tenements. He built a mansion at 
Bulstrode, which came afterwards to his son-in-law Charles Dive, who 
sold it, in the reign of Queen Anne, to William, Earl of Portland, in 
whose family, now aggrandized by a dukedom, it still continues. And 
he had an inclination at one time to have become the purchaser of ano- 
ther estate,* but was outwitted by one of his legal brethren. Sir Jef- 
frey Jeffreys, the alderman, lent his namesake considerable sums of mo- 
ney, and by way of security, had a mortgage on his Leicestershire estate. 
When the second and last Lord Jeffreys died in 1702, Sir Jeffrey took 
possession of these lands, and filed a bill of foreclosure against Lord Vis- 
count Windsor, who had married the widow, and others: the issue of 
which was, that the noble defendant was ordered to pay the encum- 
brances, which amounted to upwards of 13,000/. And we have seen, that 
other estates belonging to the chancellor were ordered to be sold after 
his son's death. The sale took place for the satisfaction of this mort- 
gage and settlements made by the first lord in 1688. 

* Gnnerlon Park. 



308 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



Temple-hall. It cost fifty pounds, and was executed at 
the expense of the society. This painting, however, was 
not destined to remain long in its station ; for no sooner 
had those reverses taken place which caused such a ge- 
neral commotion in all societies, than it was removed to 
Mr. Holloway's chambers ; and in 1695, an order was 
promulgated from the benchers to the effect — 

"That Mr. Treasurer do declare to the Lord Jeffreys, 
that, at his lordship's desire, the house do make a present 
to his lordship of his father's picture, now in Mr. Hol- 
loway's chambers, who is desired to deliver the same to 
his lordship, or his order." John, Lord Jeffreys, having 
obtained the portrait, sent it to Acton; where, Nichols 
tells us, the Honourable Daines Barrington often saw it. 
The Denbighshire estate being sold to Sir Foster Cunliffe, 
this painting was again removed to Erthig, the house of 
Mr. Yorke, who possessed another likeness of the judge 
by J. Allen. 1 That considerable antiquary, Mr. Nichols, 



1 The following is a description of some of the portraits and engra- 
vings: 

The Right Honourable George, Lord Jeffreys, Baron of Wem, lord 
high chancellor of England, and one of the lords of His Majesty's most 
honourable privy-council, 1686. Wig, laced band, habit of office, arms,* 
mace, and purse. "POBDAUNODDVW.''— Ames's Catalogue of Eng- 
lish Heads. 

Sir George Jefferies. R. White, sc. 8vo. — Granger. 

George, Lord Jefferies, &c. lord high chancellor, 1686. Cooper, large 
4to. mezz. 

George, Lord Jefferies, &c. inscribed, "The Lord Chancellor." J. 
Smith, exc. large 4to. mezz. 

The Lord Chancellor taken in disguise at Wapping. He is surrounded 
by the mob. H. sh. — Granger. 



* He bore ermine, a lion rampant, and canton, sable, with a mullet for difference i 
a canton, and the arms of Ulster in an inescutcheon on the body of the lion. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 809 



goes on thus in his note: — "The picture (that of the 
Inner Temple) continues in tolerable preservation." Mr. 
Gough was informed there was in the hall at Acton a 
whole length of the chancellor's brother; and that an 
original portrait of the former, removed from Guildhall 
in his disgrace, and sold, is, or was a few years ago, at 
Mr. Harnage's, at Belsardine, near Cressing, in Shrop- 
shire ; one of whose ancestors married his youngest daugh- 
ter. Another picture of him is said to have perished in 
the fire which destroyed the manor-house of Durance, 
about fifty years ago, at the Christmas audit, by putting 
too much wood on the hall-fire. There were at Stoke 
Pogisj" in Buckinghamshire, in the possession of Lady Ju- 
liana Penn, his descendant, two portraits of Lord Chan- 
cellor Jeffreys : one a whole length in his robes, holding 
the great seal ; in the other, he is in black, with a band, 
and sitting at a table, on which is a letter directed to 
him. The present earl of Winchelsea has also a portrait 
of him ; and another is in the possession of Dr. Jeffreys, 
canon residentiary of St. Paul's. 

Whether the reader be curious to know the fate of 
other persons who have been mentioned in this little histo- 
ry, or be content with the extinction of its principal cha- 
racter, we will offer no opinion. The great novelist of 
our day has ever been willing to gratify those who have 
luxuriated in his pages with such information ; but as we 
are dealing with the plain, simple narrative of a great 
man's life, it were far better to say, in imitation of Bos- 
well's farewell, — Such was Jeffreys. Samuel Johnson, 

George ( Jefferies,) Earl of Flint, Viscount Weikham, Baron of Weim, 
&c. G. Kneller, p. Cooper, exc. 1686, 4to. mezz. very scarce. 



310 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



however, died childless ; whereas the chancellor left a 
son, who inherited, not only the honour of his title, but 
some of his bright parts also. A very short mention of 
this young nobleman shall close the chapter. 1 

Under the management of so jovial a parent, it would 
have been surprising if John had not fallen into all the 
gaieties of the times ; and he accordingly inherited a love 
for the bottle, and a propensity to extravagant habits. — 
That very strange story related of him at Dryden's fune- 
ral, although proved of late to have been the fabrication 
of a Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, his Corinna, 2 is yet quite 
congenial with his conduct and with the custom of the 
age, when every young lord was bowed down to like a 
phoenix. When the great poet died (at least so the story 
goes,) Sprat, then bishop of Rochester and dean of West- 
minster, sent to Lady Elizabeth Howard, the widow, with 
a proposal to make a present of the ground and all the 
Abbey-fees: Lord Halifax also offered to bury him with 
a gentleman's private funeral, and to bestow BOOL upon 
a monument to his honour. This liberality being acceded 
to by the lady and Charles Dryclen, the son, the corpse 

1 Jeffreys was twice married. His first wife, Sarah Neesham, brought 
him four sons and two daughters : John, of whom we are now speaking ; 
Thomas, who died March 7, 1676 ; George and Robert, who died in their 
infancy; Margaret, his eldest daughter, who espoused William Stringer, 
of Durance, in the parish of Enfield (son and heir to Judge Stringer;) 
and Sarah, the second, who married George Harnage, a captain of ma- 
rines. His second wife, the widow of Sir John Jones, of Funman, in 
Glamorganshire, and daughter of the Lord Mayor Bludworth, gave him 
two sons and four daughters, all of whom died infants, except Mary, 
who became the wife of Charles Dive, Esq. — See Nichols's Leices- 
tershire. 

2 She was in prison, and in great poverty, which might probably in- 
duce her to become " the mother of many inventions." 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 311 



was ready to move forward, attended by eighteen mourn- 
ing coaches ; the Abbey was lighted, the choir attending, 
the anthem set, and the dean waiting to bury. At this 
moment came up the young lord with some wild rakes, 
and having learned for whom the funeral obsequies were 
performing, "What shall Dryden, the greatest honour 
and ornament of the nation, be buried after this private 
manner?" quoth Jeffreys: "No, gentlemen; let all that 
loved Mr. Dryden, and honour his memory, alight, and 
join with me in gaining my lady's consent to let me have 
the honour of his interment, which shall be after another 
manner than this ; and I will bestow a thousand pounds 
on a monument in the Abbey for him." This said, the 
people in the coaches, who were ignorant of the dean's 
kindness as well as of Halifax's generosity, alighted, and 
attended the young man to the bed-chamber of the Lady 
Howard, who was sick. All kneeled down by his desire, 
and he vowed never to rise till his request should be 
granted. The unfortunate woman fainted away, being 
frightened, but exclaimed, "No, no!" as soon as she re- 
covered. "Enough, gentlemen," said Lord Jeffreys; "my 
lady is very good; she says, 'Go, go.'" Her feeble 
voice was, however, drowned in joyous acclamations, and 
away went all the parties, the hearsemen being bidden 
to carry the corpse to one Russel, an undertaker in 
.Cheapside, there tojbe embalmed after the royal fashion. 
Next day, Mr. Charles Dryden endeavoured to excuse 
his mother to the bishop and my Lord Halifax ; but they 
would hear nothing in extenuation ; and when the under- 
taker applied to Jeffreys for a fulfilment of his promise, 
he turned it off ill-naturedly, saying, that those who ob- 
served the orders of a drunken frolic deserved no better; 



312 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



that he remembered nothing of it, and that he might do 
what he liked with the corpse. Charles Dryden then 
wrote to him, but received for answer, that he would not 
be troubled about the matter. The result of this extra- 
ordinary matter was, that Dr. Garth, of the College of 
Physicians, proposed a subscription ; and Dryden was at 
length interred in the Abbey, followed by a numerous 
train of coaches. But as soon as the funeral was over, 
Charles sought every opportunity of fighting the man 
who had so dishonoured his parents; and having chal- 
lenged him in vain, declared that he would watch and 
fight him off-hand, though like a gentleman, and with all 
the rules of honour ; and then, we are told, that Jeffreys 
sneaked off out of the town, and that the meeting, though 
sedulously sought for, never took place. 

Mr. Malone, who took singular pains to disprove this 
unhandsome tale, after exhibiting many instances of false- 
hood which Mrs. Thomas had allowed to go forth in print, 
gives the verity of the case thus. — True it was, that Jef- 
freys met the procession in the street, and that, in con- 
junction with others, he was instrumental in changing the 
private funeral intended him by Mr. Montague, after- 
wards Lord Halifax, into a public ceremony; but the 
histories of the dean, the attendance of the choir, the 
bed-chamber scene, and the challenge, were merely em- 
bellishments, or, to speak more to the purpose, gross fic- 
tions. The Earl of Dorset and Jeffreys thought that so 
great a poet should be honoured with a signal solemnity ; 
and having prevailed on the relations of Dryden to suffer 
the removal of his corpse, it was taken from the under- 
taker's on the same evening to the College of Physicians, 
whence it was carried with due pomp to Westminster, as 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 313 



we have related. 1 The truth, therefore, is far from being 
discreditable to the young nobleman, although he might 
have effected his intentions in a manner somewhat chi- 
valrous. 2 

Like his father, he had the reputation of being an au- 
thor, from the force of genius which he was known to 
possess ; and Walpole has thought fit to place him in his 
Noble Catalogue. 3 The paraphrased fable, however, on 
King William, is considered to have been Prior's, having 
been found among his unpublished manuscripts after his 
death in his own hand-writing, though Lord Jeffreys has 
long had the credit of it. As it is but short, perhaps 
there will be no harm in giving it : — 

A FABLE. 

In iEsop's tales an honest wretch we find, 
Whose years and comforts equally declin'd; 
He in two wives had two domestick ills, 
For different age they had, and different wills; 
One pluckt his black hairs out, and one his gray ; 
The man for quietness did both obey, 
Till all his parish saw his head quite bare, 
And thought he wanted brains as well as hair. 



1 This account is greatly confirmed by Ward, in his London Spy. He 
says, he saw the procession when standing at the end of Chancery-lane, 
that he heard the concert of hautboys and trumpets, and he compliment? 
Lord Jeffreys on his pious undertaking. 

2 Not unlike Richard — 

" Stay you, that bear the corse, and set it down." 
And again : 

"Villains, set down the corse, or, by Saint Paul, 
I'll make a corse of him that disobeys." 

3 But it is in a kind of appendix, where Lord Orford designates his 
supplemental geniuses as persons he had hardly thought of noticing. 

27 



314 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 



THE MORAL. 

The parties, henpeckt W m, are thy wives ; 

The hair they pluck are thy prerogatives : 
Tories thy person hate, the whigs thy power; 
Though much thou yieldest, still they try for more, 
Till this poor man and thou alike are shown, 
He without hair, and thou without a crown. 

The burlesqued epitaph on the Duke of Gloucester 
has been always understood as the legitimate production 
of this nobleman. The original by Dr. Bentley is in 

Latin verse. 1 

What reason have I to complain, 
Since in all times it has been plain, 
That great and weighty things must soon. 
Like jacks, with their own weight, go down? 
And Nature, when upon her back 
She lays too much, will surely crack. 
So little Willy does, and cares 
Neither for scepters, nor our prayers : 



1 On the Death of the Dii/.e of Gloucester, by Dr. Bentley. 
Quid queror ? an proprio sub pondere magna fatiscunt ? 
Et Natura labat dotibus ipsa suis? 
Sic moreris, Gulielme, et sceptra, et vota tuorum, 
Destituens, brevis, heu ! Spes; diturnus Amor! 
An potius terras Deus indignatus inertes 
Illustres animas ad supera alta vocat ? 
Nee moreris, Gulielme, volas sed vivus ad astra, 

JEtheriis vectus qualis Enochus equis ; 
Et positis novus exuviis roseo ore refulges, 

Inter ccelicolas conspiciendus avos. 
Interea flendo nos frustra ducimus horas, 

Viventi et cassas solvimus exequias. 
Scilicet : at sine te tristi marcescere in asvo, 
Illud erit nobis, bis, Gulielme, mori. 



LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 315 



And I shall love him long, for all 
The hopes he gave us were but small. 
Or rather God, who gave us birth, 
Being in wrath with lazy earth, 
Takes this occasion, and prefers 
Illustrious souls among the stars. 
If it be so, I told a lie, 
And little Willy does not die; 
But mounts alive, and swiftly flies, 
On airy horseback thro' the skies. 
'Tis the same horse old Enoch rode, 
And Asgil keeps to go to God. 
Now see the youth without his clothes, 
How like a new-born flow'r he shows; 
See how his rosy cheeks do shine 
Among his ancestors divine; 
While we poor mortals here below 
Our sighs and tears in vain bestow; 
And empty obsequies are paid, 
Just as if he were really dead; 
Which makes it plain that living on 
A hated life, now he is gone, 
Will be to us, altho' our breath 
Should ne'er be stopt, a double death. 

There is really some ground for Mrs. Wiseman's praise, 
when, dedicating her tragedy of Antiochus to him, she 
spoke of his "admirable gay humour and eternal vivacity 
of wit." He received a similar mark of honour from the 
author of Bonduca, another tragedy, altered from Fletch- 
er, which was published in 1696. Yet while he was an 
enterprising, he was doubtless an imprudent lord; and 
though his death, which took place in 1703, averted the 
distress which treads hard upon the spendthrift, his 
estates turned out to be seriously involved and encum- 
bered. We have seen how he became possessed of Lord 
Pembroke's daughter, in spite of all obstacles; and 
whether a state of comfort or unhappiness ensued upon 



316 LIFE OF JEFFREYS. 

the nuptials, certain it is, that the chancellor had ad- 
vanced his son among the first people of the land, and 
that his granddaughter allied herself to noble blood. 
John, Lord Jeffreys, had two children; Herbert, who 
died an infant, and Henrietta, who wedded Thomas, Earl 
of Pomfret. The death of Herbert caused the extinction 
of the title. Henrietta, the countess, was an amiable 
and well-informed gentlewoman; she was the familiar 
and affectionate correspondent of Lady Hartford, 1 after- 
wards Duchess of Somerset, whom Thomson has justly 
celebrated. Both these ladies retired from public life in 
1737, on the death of Queen Caroline; Lord Pomfret and 
his family went to reside on the continent, while the 
Lady Hartford remained in England. That nobleman 2 
died in 1753 ; and two years afterwards his noble collec- 
tion of busts and statues 3 was presented to the University 
of Oxford by his widow. She died in 1761, leaving a 
considerable family, and was honoured with a cenotaph 
by the college to which she had been so munificent a 
donor. 



1 Hartford, fitted or to shine in courts 
With unaffected grace, or walk the plain. — Thomson. 
- He was a knight of the Bath, and master of the horse to the Queen, 
and his wife was a lady of the bed-chamber. 

3 The Pomfret marbles, being part of the Arundel marbles, were bought 
by Sir William Fermor, Lord Pomfret's father, and deposited at Easton 
Neston, Northamptonshire, the seat of the family, whence they were re- 
moved to the Logic and Moral Philosophy School at Oxford. 



TEE END. 



LINDSAY & BLAKISTOfl 

PUBLISH 

THE LIFE, LETTERS AND POEMS 

O F 

BERNARD BARTON. 

EDITED BY HIS DAUGHTER. 
"With a Portrait. 

Extract from the Preface. 
In compiling the present volume, it has been the wish of the editor, in 
some measure, to carry out her father's favourite but unfulfilled design 
of an autobiography. It is with reference to this that both the letters 
and poems have been selected. The great bulk of the poems are reli- 
gious ; but there are not wanting those of a lighter character, which will 
be found to be the wholesome relaxation of a pure, good, and essentially 
religious mind. These may sacceed each other as gracefully and bene- 
ficently as April sunshine and showers over the meadow. So, indeed, 
such moods followed in his own mind, and were so revealed in his do- 
mestic intercourse. 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
This is a very handsome volume, enriched with a neat and graphic portrait 
of the worthy quaker lyrist, and forms a valuable addition to our poetical 
literature. In the interesting Memoir and rich collection of Epistolary Re- 
mains, the fair editress has conferred a most acceptable favour upon the man;' 
admirers of her gifted parent. Among the correspondence are letters from 
Southey, Charles Lamb, Sir Walter Scott, and other distinguished cotempo- 
ries. — Evening Bulletin. 

The poems of this meritorious writer, better known by the name of tho 
Quaker Poet, have long been popular in England, and are much admired 
in this country for their simplicity and warmth of feeling. — American an 
Commercial Advertiser, Baltimore. 

Barton was a Quaker, but mingled a good deal with the "world's people," 
at least with such as were, like himself, addfcted to literary pursuits. His 
correspondence with Southey and Charles Lamb, is full of interest. Many 
of his poems are very beautiful ; and the present volume is worth a nJv- 
every good library. — Evening Transcript. 






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